Drug use by alcoholics in outpatient treatment

Although increasing attention has been paid to the problems of combined and sequential alcohol and drug abuse, data about drug use by alcoholics during the course of outpatient treatment are not available. Urine testing for commonly abused drugs was obtained on 112 alcoholic outpatients during a 2-week period. Ten urine samples were positive for abuseable drugs. Patients' age, length of treatment involvement, and history of drug use prior to treatment appeared to affect drug use during treatment. At 4 month follow-up of the 10 patients with positive urine tests, five were drug free, three had discontinued but then returned to drug use, and two had been discharged. Given the limitations of such a cross-sectional study, the incidence of drug use by alcoholics during outpatient treatment seems high enough to warrant further study.