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Heroin Addiction and Related Clinical Problems: 1999, 01, 2 (pages: 27 - 34)

Adolescent Narcotism in Russia

Dineeva N. R.

Summary: Part I. In Russia, units of narcological dispensaries for adolescents are the basic organizational structure conducting treatment and prophylactic work with adolescents who consume alcohol, drugs and toxic substances. Over a five-year period, the incidence the incidence of drug-addicted adolescents rose to 13 times the 1992 level, when 4.5 per 100 thousand adolescents were registered. In 1996, 3891 adolescent drug addicts were counted, corresponding to 59.8 per 100 thousand adolescents. The group of adolescents using spirits is the largest – 4067 people, The group using toxic substances is the second largest, comprising 1118 patients. The third largest group, with 914 subjects, consists of drug addicts and patients who consume drugs. Their number is 914 subjects. Consumers of “strong” drugs are adolescents in the 16-18 age who have been hospitalized with a non-remissional history of drug addiction, or with only short-term periods of abstinence from using drugs. Part II. In order to set away from settled conceptions, an attempt has been made to treat the assessment of the prevalence of narcomanias and toxicomanias from the point of view of social rather than exclusively medical factors connected with them. As predictors of narcomanias we considered medical, socio-economic, demographic, cultural, physical training and sports indices. As a result, it was established that the prevalence of narcotism depends on 4 basic indices, as follows: (1) the specific gravity of group B production (i.e. the production of means of consumption); (2) wages per family member per month; (3) average number of square meters in the dwelling-place per inhabitant; (4) the number of those working in the non-production field.