A hospital based survey

government and public alike.1,2 Recent evidence3,4 suggests that it may be on the increase. Drug treatment services were first set up in the Kingdom in the eighties. Three specially designated hospitals were opened for this purpose.5-7 Saudi Arabia is still lacking in comprehensive data on substance dependence. No proper information gathering system is in place and good epidemiological studies or surveys have not yet been carried out. It was felt that by surveying hospital S records of in-patients useful preliminary information on this important public health issue could be gathered The objective of this study is to collect basic data on multiple and diverse issues to evaluate smoking, prevalence of different substances used, injection related harm, nutritional status, trauma, accidents, abnormal laboratory parameters, medical and psychiatric co-morbidity among the substance dependent. Objective: To collect basic data on multiple and diverse issues such as drugs of dependence, smoking, initiation age, injection related harm, nutritional status, trauma, accidents, abnormal laboratory parameters and co-morbid conditions.