Vázquez MA, La Rosa MY, Pablos AT

Language: Spanish
References: 0
Page: 153-166
PDF size: 124.49 Kb.

ABSTRACT

Introduction: the consumption of substances is an important public health problem in the world and constitutes one of the great scourges of the current era. Objective: to identify the presence of depressive symptoms and some related factors in a sample of Venezuelan addicts. Method: a cross-sectional descriptive study with 174 addicts to illegal drugs who were admitted to Villa El Yarey. We studied the age, sex, substance consumed, family psychiatric history, current depressive symptoms and suicidal behavior. Percentages, arithmetic mean, ranges were used and, as inferential statistics, the chi-squared test for the analysis of the data. Results: men and the group of 25 to 34 years predominated. The frequency of depressive symptoms was 26.4 %. The drug that most addicts consume is crack, followed by heroin and cocaine, patients with depressive symptoms have more first-degree relatives with alcoholism and drug addiction than those who do not have depressive symptoms; the attempt of previous single or multiple suicides and the presence of current suicidal idea is more frequent in patients with depressive symptoms. Conclusions: depressive symptoms are frequent in addicts, especially in those who consume depressant drugs; they frequently have relatives with addiction and a high suicidal risk.