[Epidemiologic surveys in the field of drug abuse]

Among the various approaches used to study behaviours of use and abuse of drugs, epidemiology is now being called upon to direct its attention to two other approaches. Firstly, it should provide a more global view of subject groups than the specific descriptions of a few specialized centres. Secondly, it should take part in studies assessing public health policies for drug addiction. In relation to procedures used by epidemiologists in other fields of health sciences, the distinctive features of drug addiction need limitations and adaptation of methods. In France, anonymity and free health care are guaranteed to all drug addicts who request them. The direct consequences of this legislation is the absence of a drug addict register, unlike in other countries, such as Great Britain. There are no either registers nor survey data base from which representative samples can be constructed. Moreover, since those definitions used are multicriteria definitions, the assessment of a case on a drug addiction scale is in practice usually highly subjective and associated with the particular orientations of a clinical team or of a school of thought, because the notion of dependence is not used in the same way. Since drug addiction develops beyond adolescence and has social and/or medical consequences, specialized or non-specialized public health services or prisons are the main areas of observation for epidemiologists. Surveys are conducted through teams specialized in the treatment of drug addicted volunteers. The anonymity of centres is guaranteed by the INSERM and the centres themselves guarantee the anonymity of subjects studied.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)