Analysis of the use of psychoactive drugs in the Northwestern region of Russia

The review presents an analysis of the tendencies of alcohol, narcotics and psychoactive drugs use in the Northwestern region of Russia during the last decade. The normative documents regulating the work of psychiatrists and narcologists are considered, as well as the registration data of drug addicts in the respective public health institutions, and morbidity and distribution indices in different parts of the region. A special attention is given to the analysis of medical and statistical indices characterizing the work of narcological institutions in comparison with other regions of Russia and with foreign countries. A separate section is devoted to the data on narcological diseases morbidity among women and adolescents, on the complications encountered in drug addicts (alcohol psychoses, alcohol myocardiopathy, acute alcohol and surrogates intoxications, other somatic and psychic manifestations in alcohol and drug addict patients), as well as the data of forensic medicine studies in the region. I conclude that the official medical statistical data need to be taken into consideration when designing special programs of diagnostics, therapy and rehabilitation of drug addicts.