Schizophrenia and drugs use

Abstract

Introduction In the last two decades several scientific practical researches have found the presence of drug abuse (cannabinoids and/or opioids) in about 60% of patients with schizophrenia. Schizophrenic patients are predisposed at 4,6 times to the SPA addiction compared to general population. Purpose The present study aimed at confirming/refuting of drug use, including alcohol by patients with schizophrenia, hospitalized in the Costiujeni Clinical Psychiatric Hospital. Material and methods Were researched 180 patients with various clinical forms of schizophrenia. All patients were divided into 3 groups: 1st - consisting of 66 patients with schizophrenia and alcohol addiction; 2nd - 30 patients with schizophrenia and drugs addiction, and 3rd (control group) - 84 patients with schizophrenia without SPA addiction. Results The drug and alcohol abuse have found in about 52,8% of patients of investigated cases. The dependence syndrome was present in 46 (47,9%) of patients (the drug/alcohol dependence was most frequently presented in patients of urban areas with aggravated heredity and general or specialized secondary education). We have found that patients with schizophrenia and drug/alcohol dependence frequently have somatic pathologies like gastric, pancreatic, bronchitis, cardiomyopathy and etc. Conclusions 1) Patients with schizophrenia often use drugs/alcohol to reduce emotional tension in the order relief "negative" symptoms or to reduce the intensity of side effects of antipsychotic remedies. 2) The most patients had somatic comorbidity.