Abstract

RODRIGUES, Luciana Oliveira Villarinho; SILVA, Carlos Roberto de Castro e; OLIVEIRA, Nara Rejane Cruz de  and  TUCCI, Adriana Marcassa. Profile of crack users in Santos city. Temas psicol. [online]. 2017, vol.25, n.2, pp. 675-689. ISSN 1413-389X.  http://dx.doi.org/10.9788/TP2017.2-14.

The use of crack is a complex issue, requiring intersectoral innovations and joints in proposing effective public policies. OBJECTIVE: To describe the profile of crack users in the city of Santos/SP. METHOD: Cross-sectional study with a quantitative approach. Subjects were 292 crack users, from both sexes, over the age of eighteen. The sample was selected through the snowball technique. It was used for data collection an adapted version of the Addiction Severity Index. RESULTS: The profile of subjects investigated indicates a higher prevalence of male, single, homeless, average age 35, average schooling of 8 years, problems related to family and social ties, high presence of psychological and psychiatric symptoms, beginning of crack consumption in adulthood, poliusers of psychoactive substances and no history of treatment. CONCLUSIONS: The finding of such a profile suggests that interventions based on harm reduction strategies made in locus with educational and preventive objective, may be the most appropriate ways to achieve integration and reduce damage in this population. Thus, these findings can help and strengthen public policies, such as Street Outreach Offices, especially in the area of alcohol or other drugs.

Keywords : Crack-cocaine; cocaine-related disorders; population characteristics.

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