[The onset of drug abuse in children]

The paper deals with drug abuse in minors who are on the records of the regional surgery for toxicomania in Ostrava-Poruba. The authors give an account of examinations of 27 children aged 7.5 to 14 years. They emphasize the social and psychological aspects leading in these children to drug abuse. They present the basic four types of children who incline to failure in this respect: markedly extrovert subjects with good intellect, markedly submissive children, more introvert subjects with inferior intellect, neglected children with poor intellect and behavioural disorders and children with a high appetence for the drug. In the conclusion the authors emphasize possibilities of prevention within the discipline of psychiatry.