Drug addicts treatment for ten years in Thanyarak Hospital (1989-1998).

The problem of drug addicts has increased over the past 3-4 years. A retrospective descriptive study of inpatient drug addicts at Thanyarak Hospital was done. Data from the record pool from October 1989 to September 1998 was reviewed for demographic information, diagnosis, HIV infection and the outcome of treatment. The study showed that the total number of patients increased from 7,595 cases in 1989 to 10,661 cases in 1995, but decreased in the next three years to 7,633 cases in 1998. Males constituted more than 91.5 per cent in each year. Mean ages decreased from 31.1+/-8.8 to 26.5+/-9.3 years. Most of the patients were labourers or were unemployed. The number of students also increased. Initially, students constituted only 1.3 per cent but in the last 3 years this increased to 4.0, 8.0 and 17.1 per cent, respectively. The education level has gradually increased. Heroin addiction was approximately 80.6-92.4 per cent in the first 8 years but markedly decreased to 38.0 per cent in the last year. Opium addiction decreased from 3.8 per cent to 1.0 per cent. Methamphetamine addiction markedly increased from 0.4 per cent to 51.5 per cent. The outcome of the treatments showed that patients who attended the 2-3 weeks detoxification treatment program was 30.9-43.5 per cent but patients who joined the therapeutic community rehabilitation program was only 0.8-4.2 per cent. The mortality rate increased from 2.1 per thousand to 5.2 per thousand and more HIV infected patients died than non-HIV infected patients. This rate varied from 1.7 times in 1989 to 8 times in 1995 and 4.5 times in 1996. We conclude from this study that drug addicts changed from heroin to Methamphetamine especially among young students in the last 2-3 years. HIV infection was still high in old cases (about 40%).