الفهرس 
AcknowledgementOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Drug addiction - worldwide constitutes a major public health problem social and medical problems especially hepatitis and s . In the last few years, several reports revealed an increase of size of the drug addicts population. Accordingly the present study was designed to : Study the demographic and social characteristics of addicts (e. g. age, marital status, occupation). Detect important infections among addicts. Study the possible correlation between addiction and infectious problems. One hundred drug addicts admitted to Alexandria Psychiatric Hospital ere involved in the study. The control group comprised 80 apparently ’thy individuals. All individuals (addicts and controls) were submitted to e followings : ~l, Filling a predesigned questionnaire which included demographic, social data and data about addiction and its associated medical problems. Clinical examination; general and systemic. Chest X-ray. Electrocardiogram. Laboratory investigations included: a. Complete blood picture. b. Latex agglutination slide test for determination of antistrepto lysin-O antibodies. c. ELlS A technique to detect HBsAg and anti-HBc. d. Urine analysis. e. Stool analysis. Skin scrapping for superficial skin fungus infection. f. Data collected were coded, tabulated and analysed using different hstical methods.. Analysis of data revealed the following results: Mean age among addicts was (34.2 + 6.7) and a high percentage (78) were in the age group 20-40 years, 57 of addicts were single and most of them had both low social class (86) and educational level (preparatory school or less) 71 . Their main occupation were labourers and merchants (41 and 36 respectively). The highest percentage (58) of addicts started addiction in the age group 15-20 years. The effect or pressure of friends and relatives was the most common trigger of starting addiction (88), ceremonial occasions comes next 14, followed by personal curiosity 13. Stress factors like illhess, study, social problems accounted for only 4.