Problematic heroin use incidence trends in Spain

Abstract

We demonstrate the utility of a method to estimate heroin incidence from analysis of observed trends in presentations at specialist drug treatment facilities. The estimates suggest that incidence of heroin use, especially injecting, has fallen since 1980 and is now lower than in the early 1970s.

A Method to Estimate Total Entry to Hard Drug Use: The Case of Intravenous Drug Use in Norway

“…Even though the entry rate and the incidence rate are not directly comparable, the increase and decrease in entry to intravenous drug use (mainly of heroin) in Norway and Oslo is commensurate with other European results regarding heroin use, although the peak appeared later than in other countries [4,6,9,10] . This may be due to a later start of ST in Norway than in most other European countries.…”

“…The fact that some individuals never show up or show up very late to treatment has been addressed in different ways. Results on heroin use leading to treatment entry or death are available on a national level for England, Switzerland and Spain, and also on a regional and city level in these and a few other countries [2,[4][5][6][7][8][9][10] .…”

Methadone maintenance treatment in Spain: the success of a harm reduction approach

“…By 1980, the incidence of heroin use had peaked. 1 In addition, the epidemic of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection started in the 1980s. According to estimates, Spain reached its highest incidence of HIV infection related to the injection of illicit drugs in 1984: 79 cases per 100 000 inhabitants.…”

Diferencias en el consumo de drogas ilegales entre nativos e inmigrantes en una amplia muestra de consumidores de droga por vía parenteral en Cataluña (España)

“…This effect could result in a reversal of the trend of diminishing consumption of heroin in Spain (Sanchez-Niubo et al, 2009), and could even have the more problematic effect of influencing the types of drugs injected by native users and consequently the trafficking of heroin. Thus, natives may adopt immigrant patterns of use.…”