Changes of the populations of patients in an addictive disorders service in Rome: 2001-2006

Abstract

In the last six years an increasing number of patients seeking care for cocaine dependence entered the Day Hospital program at Catholic University medical school, with a milder variation in the number of opioid dependent patients. The number of cocaine dependent patients doubled year by year from 15 pts in 2003, through 32 in 2004, to 60 in 2005; preliminary data from 2006 seem to follow this trend. A minority of patients are addicted to other drugs. This outgrowth in cocaine addicted patients could be related both to a wider diffusion of cocaine related problems in the general population in Italy1 and to the institution of a specific program for cocaine related disorders in our service. The mean age of opioid dependent patients remained quite stable through years, with a slight increase from 32,1 years, with a standard deviation of 6,9 in 2001 to 33,5 with a SD of 7,0 in 2005. In the same years we observed a slight decrease in the mean age of cocaine patients, frome 36,2 years with a SD of 11,2 in 2001 to 32,8 with a SD of 6,8 in 2005. Both substances are most commonly abused by men: 83,1% of cocaine dependent and 79,2% of opioid dependent patients are male, while only 16,1% of cocaine and 20,1% of opioid dependent patients are female.