Cannabis, cocaine most common drugs used by patients seeking treatment for alcohol use: study

Emma Spears - thegrowthop.com Posted 5 years ago
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Cocaine and cannabis are the drugs most commonly used by patients seeking treatment for alcohol addiction, concludes a new Irish study released by the Health Research Board (HRB).

 

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One in five cases involved the treatment of polydrug users—those who are being treated for dependency or problematic use of more than one substance. Some of the findings include the following:

  • 55,675 cases of treatment for alcohol abuse were recorded between 2011 and 2017;
  • the numbers show a high rate of use in 2011 (8,876 cases) versus a lower rate in 2017 (7,350 cases);
  • the number of new cases decreased to 48 percent in 2017 from 52 percent in 2011.

The most commonly reported drug used in conjunction with alcohol was cannabis, with 68 percent reported in 2011 versus 61 percent in 2017.

The second most commonly reported drug used was cocaine, which showed an increase—29 percent in 2011 to 42 percent in 2017. Use of cocaine was seen at a higher rate in male (44 percent) than female (34 percent) users.

Benzodiazepines rounded out the top three at 23 percent—22 percent in 2011, up slightly to 23 percent in 2016.

Alcohol “remains the main problem drug that people enter treatment for in Ireland,” says Dr. Darrin Morrissey, chief executive at the HRB, noting that recovery from using multiple drugs is much more difficult than users of a single substance.

“That, in conjunction with the very high percentages of cases that are alcohol-dependent, point to the chronic nature of addiction,” Morrissey points out.

 

 

The HRB analyzes data from a variety of Irish substance abuse treatment centres, as well as the National Drug Treatment Reporting System.

It’s important to note that each case refers to one treatment episode, as opposed to one patient—so patients could be counted multiple times in a calendar year.

 

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