Profile of heroin addicts in Nagaland, India.
A total of 395 drug addicts from Nagaland, India during 1992-1993 were studied. Of these, 331 (83.8%) were primary abusers of heroin. Mean age of the group was 21.8 years +/- SD 3.84. Of these 5.2% were females. The majority were unmarried (92.1%) and 52% had completed 10 years of schooling. Drug-related school dropout rate was 72.8%. Unemployment was predominant (90.3%) in the group, of which most were never employed. Christianity was the main religion (90.9%) of the group. The mean age at first use of heroin was 17.6 years +/- SD 3.68. The mean duration of dependence on heroin was 4.4 years +/- SD 2.8. Heroin was injected by 80.9% subjects. Friends were the main source of introduction. Concurrent use of tranquilizers and codeine containing cough syrups was prevalent in the event of a short supply of heroin. The involvement of young, unemployed, unmarried persons in heroin addiction; widespread prevalence of the injection route and needle sharing; chronicity of heroin dependence; paucity of specialized treatment avenues and proximity to the Golden Triangle facilitating illicit traffic, have contributed to emergence of heroin addiction as a major public health problem in Nagaland.
Kumar
S
S
Regional Medical Research Center, Dibrugarh, Assam, India.
Wairagkar
N S
NS
Mahanta
J
J
Satyanarayana
K
K
Chetial
M
M
Phukan
R K
RK
Goswami
S K
SK
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006556:Heroin Dependence / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male