Psychological And Psychiatric Characterization Of Various Groups Of Drug Users

The study retrospectively analyzed 604 hospitalized patients with heroin or polydrug addiction to assess psychiatric and psychological differences among drug users. Significant differences were found in diagnoses at admission, including personality and behavior disorders, psychotic disorders, and schizophrenia, with p-values of 0.04298, 0.004274, and 0.000141, respectively. Personality and behavioral disorders were particularly linked to opiate use, psychotic disorders to cannabis and legal highs, and schizophrenia to legal highs. The study highlighted that despite the non-selective action of drugs leading to similar adverse effects, specific psychiatric profiles could be associated with different substances. The majority of the study group were men (87.25%), with ages ranging from 18 to 51 years. The research emphasized the need for further studies to determine if these mental health changes are reversible and underscored the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration in understanding the impact of drug abuse on mental health. Limitations included unequal group sizes and reliance on retrospective data without pre-abuse mental health baselines.