Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

Substance abuse is frequently associated with adverse medical consequences. The differences in medical symptoms reported by 101 alcohol‐, 113 cocaine‐, and 107 opiate‐dependent individuals receiving outpatient treatment were studied using a 134‐item questionnaire (MILCOM). Data analysis revealed interesting and unexpected findings, with cocaine patients reporting the fewest total symptoms among the three groups. Moreover, cocaine patients reported significantly fewer CNS and musculo‐skeletal symptoms compared to both alcohol and opiate patients and significantly fewer GI and urinary symptoms than the alcohol but not the opiate patients. In addition, there were sex‐ and race‐related differences in the pattern of symptoms reported. Women reported significantly more CVS, mood, nose/throat, CNS, skin, and GI symptoms than men. Similarly, Caucasians reported significantly more mood, CNS, nose/throat, head/neck, musculoskeletal, and GI symptoms than African‐Americans. The study highlights the influence of drug of choice, gender, and race on medical needs of substance‐abusing persons.

Keywords

medical symptoms cocaine opiate alcohol

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Cherubin

and Sapira

. 1993. The medical complications of drug addiction and the medical assessment of the intravenous drug abuser: 25 years later. Ann Intern Med, 119: 1017–1028.

Barr

, Antes

, Otenburg

and Rosen

. 1994. A mortality of treated alcoholics and drug addicts. J Stud Alcohol, 45: 440–452.

Novick

. 1992. “The medically ill substance abuser”. In Substance Abuse: A Comprehensive Textbook, 2nd ed., Edited by: Lowinson

, Ruiz

, Millman

and Langrod

. 657–674. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins.

Wartenberg

. 1994. “Medical syndromes associated with specific drugs”. In Principles of Addiction Medicine, Edited by: Miller

. Chevy Chase, MD: ASAM. Sect. V, Chap 2

U.S. National Center for Health Statistics. 1992. Prevention Profile, Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Engel

and Benzer

. 1991. “Medical complications of drug addiction”. In Comprehensive Handbook of Drug and Alcohol Addiction, Edited by: Miller

. 104–117. New York: Marcel Dekker.

Cregler

and Mark

. 1986. Medical complications of cocaine use. N Engl J Med, 315: 1495–1500.

Eckardt

, Harford

, Kaebler

, Parker

, Rosenthal

, Ryback

, Salmoriaghi

, Vendeveen

and Warren

. 1981. Health hazards associated with alcohol consumption. JAMA, 246: 648–666.

MILCOM. 1985. A Patient Database System for Improved Health Care (Revised), Chicago, IL: Hollister.

10.

American Psychiatric Association. 1994. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 3rd ed. (rev.), Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association.

11.

Scheffe

. 1959. The Analysis of Variance, New York: Wiley.

12.

Kreek

. 1987. “Multiple drug use patterns and their medical consequences”. In Psycho‐pharmacology: the Third Generation of Progress, Edited by: Meltzer

. 1543–1553. New York: Raven Press.

13.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 1990. Seventh Special Report to the U.S. Congress on Alcohol and Health, DHSS Publication No. 90–1656 Rockville, MD: National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

14.

Rounsaville

, Anton

, Carroll

, Budde

, Prusoff

and Gawin

. 1991. Psychiatric diagnoses of treatment seeking cocaine abusers. Arch Gen Psychiatry, 48: 43–51.

15.

Pascual‐Leone

, Dhuna

, Altafullah

and Anderson

. 1990. Cocaine induced seizures. Neurology, 40: 404–407.

16.

Bunn

and Giannini

. 1992. Cardiovascular complications of cocaine abuse. Am Family Physician, 46 (3): 769–773.

17.

O'Connor

and Daly

. 1985. Alcoholics: A twenty year follow up study. Br J Psychiatry, 146: 645–647.

18.

Scheidegger

and Zimmerli

. 1989. Infectious complications in drug addicts: Seven year review of 269 hospitalized narcotic abusers in Switzerland. Rev Infect Dis, 11: 486–493.

19.

Wallen

. 1992. A comparison of male and female clients in substance abuse treatment. J Substance Abuse Treat, 9: 243–248.

20.

Rouse

. 1989. Drug Abuse Among Racial/Ethnic Minorities: A Special Report, Rockville, MD: National Institute of Drug Abuse.

21.

Dolan

, Roberts

Penk

. 1993. Personality differences among black, white and hispanic‐american male heroin addicts on the MMPI content scales. J Clin Psychol, 3: 807–813.

22.

Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP). Fall 1995. Pulse Check: National Trends in Drug Abuse Fall,

23.

National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). 1996. Community and Epidemiology Work Group. Epidemiologie Trends in Drug Abuse. Highlights and Executive Summary, Washington, DC: NIDA.

A Comparison of Medical Symptoms Reported by Cocaine‐,Opiate‐,and Alcohol‐Dependent Patients

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References