[Drug using risks screening in primary care patients using the ASSIST test: Cross sectional study].

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study is to estimate risky-drug use patterns of consumption of primary care patients.

DESIGN

Multicentric descriptive cross-sectional study.

SETTING

five primary health care centers of the South of Madrid.

PARTICIPANTS

all patients between 16-100 year-old consulting with their family physician.

MEASUREMENTS

Spanish-validated World Health Organization ASSIST test was use to screen risky drug use in primary care. Total points scored at the test were obtained.

RESULTS

A sum of 441 screening test were collected. Mean age was 51,3 years and 51.6% of patients presented a moderate-severe risky drug use out of the nine drugs tested. The more frequent drug use screened were tobacco (41.7%) followed by alcohol (15.4%), hypnotics (13.7%) and cannabis (5.7%). Differences were found between genders in the patterns: men had higher risky drug uses compared to women regarding alcohol and cannabis. Women had higher sedatives/hypnotics consumption prevalence. A 16% of patients presented with polyconsumption drug use patterns.

CONCLUSIONS

There is risk derived from drug misuse in primary care for tobacco, alcohol, hypnotics and cannabis as detected by the ASSIST test. There is a higher rate of hypnotics than expected.