Publication trends in the drug dependence literature

Publications dealing with psychotropic drug use and dependence were analyzed for the years 1960-1980 using the numbers of articles cited in each yearly edition of Cumulated Index Medicus. The following headings were reviewed: drug abuse, drug dependence, alcoholism, smoking, heroin addiction, cannabis, cannabinoids, cocaine, phencyclidine, lysergic acid diethylamide, diazepam, and meprobamate. The number of citations for a given year was used to calculate the percentage of the literature for that year which fell under each of those headings. In general, it appears that the growth of the scientific literature included under many of these headings has been more rapid than the overall growth of the literature.