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Antisocial Behaviour, Barbiturate Addiction and Associated Electroencephalographic Changes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Letitia R. West
Affiliation:
St. Thomas' Hospital, London, S.E.1 (now Locum, Consultant Psychiatrist, St. James' Hospital, Portsmouth, PO4 8LD)
M. V. Driver
Affiliation:
Maudsley Hospital, London, SE5 8AZ

Extract

Since the implementation in April 1968 of the 1967 Dangerous Drugs Act, it has been illegal for any doctors except those working in drug centres to prescribe heroin. With the consequent introduction of the methadone maintenance clinics there has been a definite change in the overall pattern of addiction, largely governed by drug availability. It is difficult to estimate the extent of dependence on, or misuse of, barbiturates, but it is likely that the figure for the United Kingdom may be in the order of 150 to 250 per 100,000 (Bewley, 1970). In a recent study of sedative abuse, Mitcheson et al. (1970) found that 95 per cent of the heroin addicts interviewed had used sedatives.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1974 

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References

Bewley, T. D. (1970) An introduction to drug dependence. British Journal of Hospital Medicine, 160, 150–61.Google Scholar
Brazier, M. A. B. & Finesinger, J. E. (1945) Action of barbiturates on the cerebral cortex. Electroencephalographic studies. Archives of Neurology and Psychistry (Chicago), 53, 51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lynch, T. (1971) Journal of Irish Medical Association 64/415, 357–8.Google Scholar
Mttcheson, M., Davidson, J., Hawks, D. V., Hitchen, I. & Malone, S. (1970) Lancet, i, 606.Google Scholar
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