drug abuse pattern and high risk behaviors among addicts in shahroud county of semnan province, northeast iran in 2009

background: this study aimed at determining the drug abuse pattern and the frequency of high-risk behaviors among the clients of methadone maintenance treatment centers and drop-in centers in shahroud county of semnan province. methods: in this cross-sectional study, the data collection tool was a questionnaire including 10 general and 32 specific items about drug abuse pattern and high-risk behaviors. the data were collected via interview. results: the mean age of the subjects was 34.8 year. the patterns of opium consumption among the subjects before coming to treatment center were inhalation (44.4%), ingestion (25.7%), and injection (12.7%). the subjects abused different types of opium before referring to the treatment centers including opium 88.42%, opium extract 65.5%, crack 48.0%, alcohol 30.3%, cannabis 19.8%, heroin 16.7%, and other substances 6.5%. almost 42.4% of subjects had positive family history of drug abuse. there was not statistically significant correlation between the form of substance abuse and gender, education level, occupation and marital status. however the correlation between form of substance abuse and place of residence ( p =0.014), income ( p =0.03) and tobacco smoking ( p =0.001) was statistically significant. conclusion: the most prevalent pattern of drug consumption was inhalation. opium and crack were the most frequent kind of drugs among study subjects. these results need serious attention in providing services through methadone maintenance treatment centers as well as drop-in centers. in addition, due to highly positive family history among addicts, family participation will play an important role in prevention.