Drug Consumption in Romania: Anthropological and Medical Aspects

Abstract

Objectives: These include the presentation of: the main causes of drug use; the influence of polydrug use on the physical condition and body mass index; the importance of understanding the consequences of medical, psychological and social consequences of illicit drug use in prevention.

Materials and methods: The transversal study was carried out in 2015 in Bucharest on a group of 44 drug users (31 male, 13 female). Volunteer subjects were aged between 19 and 43 years old (mean age, 31.27±5.81 years). A questionnaire with 46 items was used for this study and 8 items are related to this particular paper, referring to drug use, ways of administrating it and to the linkage between illegal and legal drugs, and also to the physical condition of the participants to the study. The quantitative results were analysed using SPSS version 19 and Excel.

Results: Of this sample, 43.2% of the subjects had started using drugs out of curiosity, 38.6% because of the environment (entourage), 4.5% for entertainment (fun), 4.5% because of family, school or work related issues and 2.4% because of social affirmation desire. Used more drugs 47.7% of the participants, 36.4% only heroin, 6.8% used only new psychoactive substances (“legal drugs†or “ethnobotanicsâ€, the commercial name of new psychoactive substances), 4.5% only marijuana and 2.3% methadone. 75% of consumers used drugs by injection (parenteral or intravenous), 15.9% smoked the drugs (pulmonary) and 6.8% use both ways of administration. 18.2% of the respondents did not associate the consumption of illegal drugs with legal drugs, while the rest did make the association (with alcohol-9.1%, cigarettes-27.3% and coffee-2.3%. Combined drug use with alcohol and smoking 29.5% of the subjects and 81.8% noticed that after drug use their physical condition deteriorates. Consumers from the study noticed a deterioration in their physical condition after 2 (13.6%) – 3 (27.3%) years, after 1 year (11.4%) and after few month (6.8%). 53.85% of women and 19.36% of men are underweight.

Conclusions: This study shows that the polydrug use was prevalent among consumers. It was found that the polydrug use had negative effects on health, causing psychological disorders (cognitive, emotional and behavioural), and degradation of physical and nutritional status, after a shorter or longer period of time. Knowing the effects of medical, psychological (cognitive, emotional and behavioural) and social aspects of illicit drug use among young people is essential to prevention.