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Objective: The aim of the study was to investigate the sociodemographic and alcohol-substance usage characteristics of patients, who were applied to the Alcohol and Drug Addiction Treatment Center (AMATEM) of Ankara Numune Education and Research Hospital.
Method: In this study, the alcohol and substance users, who applied to Alcohol and Drug Addiction Treatment Center (AMATEM) between 1 January and 15 January 2013, have been interviewed. In addition, a semi-structured questionnaire has been used.
Results: Of 302 patients, 283 were male and 19 were female. According to the choice of drugs, 14.6% were alcohol users, 53.3% were heroin users, 5.6% were cannabis users, 3.6% were users of other drugs (cocaine, ecstasy, volatile) and 22.8% were mixed-drug users. This study revealed that there was a great deal of drug and alcohol users in the family of the drug and alcohol users (30.5%). The study showed that 21.5% of the patients were having legal problems before starting to use alcohol-substance and 36.4% of the patients were having legal problems after starting to use alcohol-substance. It was found that 24.4% of the heroin users was IV (intravenous) users. The 55.8% of IV users have used the needle of other IV drug users. It has also been observed that 9.5% of them never sterilized the needle they used. The 58.9% of patients have not read any book and 31.8% have not read newspaper. The study showed that the cannabis users were making some activities like reading book-newspaper, going to cafe with friends, travelling to other cities more often than the other groups of users. Moreover, the study showed that 19.9% of the patients have not sustained education, 47% have lost job and 22.5% had an accident because of alcohol-drug usage.
Conclusion: It was noticeable that there was a great deal of drug and alcohol users in the family of patients. It has been noticed that the social status of cannabis users were protected better than the other groups of users. The great deal of IV users, have used the needle of other users and have sterilized the needle with an incorrect method, so it is noticeable that IV substance users were under a high risk of infectious diseases. As a result, of the use of alcohol and/or substance, they were losing their jobs and it showed that the families of alcohol and substance users were being victims. The results of this study show that; the alcohol and substance abuse negatively affects many areas of life like social life, family and community relationships, job and education. Besides, alcohol and substance abuse causes increased illegal activities and disrupts the social peace. The alcohol and substance abuse is being a great problem day to day, so a multidisciplinary approach for treatment, which contains editing the social life, family and community relationships, the education and work life along with pharmacological treatment, should be developed