[Factors affecting the course of hospital detoxication of drug addicts]

Despite the long waiting list (2-3 months) for entering the Detoxication Unit of the Psychiatric Hospital in Madrid, some of the drug addicts (DA) voluntarily give up treatment. This study attempts to outline the differences between the DA who successfully complete the treatment and those who fail.

Anamnestic personal and family data and information concerning drug dependence collected from the clinical history of 1,313 DA admitted between October 1985 and March 1990 were analyzed. The sample was divided into 2 stages; the first being up to October 1988 in which adrenergic drugs (clonidine and guanfacine) were used and the second in which an opiacium agonist (methadone) was also taken. Two groups have been made according to the success and failure of the treatment.

In the first stage, the number of failures was greatest among those subjects with prison records (42% vs 27%, p less than 0.0001), heroin and cocaine addicts (33% vs 15%, p less than 0.001) and those whose urine analysis proved positive for cocaine on the day of hospital admission (46% vs 21%, p less than 0.0001). No differences were found in the second stage.

The possible usefulness of opiacium agonists vs adrenergic agonists in the detoxication of heroin and cocaine drug addicts are discussed in accordance with the knowledge obtained by other authors in preclinical studies.