Medical, social, and law characteristics of intoxicant's users medically examined in police custody.

INTRODUCTION

There are no studies on medically examined persons in custody which specifically focus on identifying dependence profiles among users of intoxicants. Nonetheless, the characterisation of dependence profiles for intoxicants such as alcohol, cannabis, cocaine, heroin, amphetamines and their by-products is a medical necessity in this setting.

MATERIALS AND

METHODS

A prospective, monocentric, open-ended study conducted by structured questionnaire was carried out on detainees who admitted to having taken an intoxicant/s (tobacco, alcohol, drugs or illegal substances). Social, legal and medical data were collected. The aim of the study was to explore characteristics of these persons in police custody.

RESULTS

817 questionnaires were examined. More than one-third have a dependence on at least one substance. 37.7% were dependant of tobacco, 86.5% of drinkers, 24.7% of cannabis users. Of these, 90.1% were from men with a mean age of 29.4 years, 40% from individuals living alone, 25.7% from persons with no financial means and 19.6% from homeless persons. 10% were believed to be suffering from mental illness, 7.2% were thought to be asthmatic, 3% to have a chronic infection, and 2.9% to have epilepsy. 36.2% reportedly received treatment, 37.5% of which included benzodiazepine and 20.3% opiate substitution therapy. Incidence of psychological and psychiatric disorders is close to 10% of intoxicant detainees.

DISCUSSION: In this study, some of the stated pathologies occur in ratios similar to those in other published results. But, there is a high, and probably underestimated, prevalence of psychological and psychiatric disorders in this population of detainees reporting exposure to intoxicant or illegal substances.