The British Journal of Psychiatry 129: 465-471 (1976)
© 1976 The Royal College of Psychiatrists
A city looks at its problem of drug abuse by injection
BP Bishop, GC Cave, MJ Gay and HG Morgan
A retrospective, multi-source screening study has detected 148 users (110
males, 38 females) of intravenous drugs who presented to all relevant
agencies between 1971 and 1973 in Bristol, a city where maintenance therapy
is a very infrequent practice. The peak prevalence was found in the age
group 20-24 years, and it appeared that the chief sources of drugs were
burglaries of chemists' shops and general practitioner prescriptions.
Sixty-four per cent of our users had not been notified to the Home Office.
Suggestions are made for the future monitoring and development of services.