A challenge for psychiatric treatment programs is to accurately identify individuals with drug misuse problems at admission to treatment. Consecutive new admissions to an urban continuing day treatment (n=229) during 2003-2005 were recruited and their treatment status was determined after one year. At admission, 34% were diagnosed with drug dependence/abuse based on a DSM-IV clinical interview,...

A 36-year-old female presented with a 3-day history of increasing shortness of breath, cough with purulent sputum, haemoptysis, pleuretic chest pain, nausea, vomiting and rigors. The patient was an intravenous drug user (IVDU) who smoked 20 cigarettes per day and denied drinking alcohol. Her only past medical history was of mild asthma, for which salbutamol was taken as needed. On examination, ...

A male intravenous drug abuser who was infected with hepatitis B and C, presented with a slowly progressive hemiplegia. Contrast enhanced computerized tomography of the head showed a solitary ring-enhanced mass with surrounding edema. Clinically brain tumor was suspected but a brain biopsy confirmed cerebral toxoplasmosis. An HIV test was not considered until the result of brain biopsy. He also...

This report discusses the issues involved in the diagnosis and management of tetanus. A 29-year-old female with a history of illicit drug use presented with progressive tetany secondary to an abscess on her forearm from subcutaneous injections. She was managed in the intensive care unit for 29 days and was discharged to the ward. The main issue in her management was control of tetanic episodes ...

There is much evidence now to support the view that drug abusers, particularly those who seek treatment, are poorly psychologically adjusted (Braucht et al., 1973). The contributory factors and nature of this poor psychological adjustment vary widely. It seems unlikely now that there is any one specific set of psychological traits or psychiatric disorder which differentiates the drug abuser fro...

BACKGROUND The clinical and etiologic implications of comorbid psychiatric and substance-use disorders are relevant across countries and cultures. The DSM-IV now places greater emphasis on the clinical and research utility of the substance-induced disorders classification, and clarifies several important diagnostic issues specific to primary and substance-induced disorders. However, no research...

Aim: To highlight the changes that may take place in the visual system of the class A drug abuser. Methods: A literature review was carried out of ocular/visual sequelae of the more common class A drugs. These include stimulants (cocaine and crack cocaine), narcotics (heroin, morphine, methadone) and hallucinogenics (ecstasy, lysergic acid diethylamide, magic mushrooms, mescaline, phencyclidine...