Tramadol is one of the most prescribed centrally-acting analgesic in the world. It has been widely used in Iraq over the last few years. There are many contradicting studies about the potential risk of tramadol abuse in the world. In this piece of work we have tried to describe a group of patients referred to the main addiction unit in Baghdad with Tramadol Abuse.

41 patients referred to the addiction unit in Ibn-Rushed Mental Teaching Hospital in Baghdad with Tramadol abuse problems, were screened, and 36 were included in this Cross Sectional study.

78% were males & 22% were females. Their age were 16–57y(mean27y).90% of the sample were on Tramadol alone & 10% on polydrugs. About 92% of them were iatrogenic abusers. Most of the patients were without previous history of drug abuse. More than one fifth of the patients had at least one seizure. About one fifth of the sample were health professionals.

Tramadol is freely and widely used in Iraq. Tramadol has a clear risk of causing dependency syndrome and this has been nearly almost always iatrogenic in our study sample. Tramadol abuse seems to be a growing problem in Iraq.