RESUMO
BACKGROUND: An increasing trend in the consumption of psychoactive substances has been observed in psychiatric patients who are hospitalised. The aim of this research is to establish the prevalence and the characteristics of the recent and non-therapeutic consumption of these substances, by detecting their presence in the blood and urine of psychiatric patients admitted to hospital, the influence of such consumption on the clinical manifestations of the mental disorders and to recommend criteria for such a phenomenon. METHOD: Detection of cannabis, amphetamines, opiates and cocaine, using the ADX system, and in blood through the REA system for alcohol detection, in patients admitted to the Psychiatric Unit of the General University Hospital in Valencia, during the first six months of 1995. The diagnoses were based on the CIE-10 in its research version, and the influence of the consumption of substances detected in the clinical manifestations of the disorders was determined by the majority decision taken be three experienced psychiatrists. RESULTS: the prevalence detected in the consumption of psychotropic substances is high (almost one third of those admitted), and consumption played a part in the admission of most of these patients (nearly 89%), aggravating the mental disorder problem when they were admitted. The variables that were most often associated with the consumption detected, where males hospitalised as a result of a brush with the law. CONCLUSIONS: A routine determining of the presence or absence of substances liable to abuse is recommended in patients admitted to psychiatric institutions.
