Drug-related medical and social conditions in military conscripts

Drug-related medical and social conditions were investigated in a sample of military conscripts from Gothenburg. The men participated in a questionnaire study concerning drug abuse in 1969/70 and were traced in different registers for 5 to 7 years. Abusers demonstrated an over-consumption of psychiatric and social care. Of all military conscripts, 4% had received in-patient psychiatric care. A total of 18% of those who were high-frequency drug users received the same care. The predominant diagnosis at the time of psychiatric treatment was drug abuse. 42% of all military conscripts were registered with the Social Welfare Administration, while the figure was 71% for high-frequency drug users. The proportion of those with repeated or lengthy sick leave was greatest among those who indicated use of drugs in the questionnaire. The proportion who had driving licenses was lower among drug users and 39% of the high-frequency drug users were granted exemption from military service during the inspection proceedings compared with less than 10% among the remaining groups. Cumulative frequencies of registrations showed that a number of curves were high for groups of drug users at an early stage and that the curves had not leveled off at the end of the follow-up period.