The Life Quality Of New-type Drug Abusers And The Short-term Effect Of Tryptophan For Them

Objectives:(1) To understand the general situation of new-type drug abuse inWuhan and the mental health and sleep status of new-type drug abusers.(2) To testtryptophan for efficacy in reducing mental symptom and sleeping disorders indetoxified new-type drug abusers, compared to placebo.Methods: An investigation was conducted with self-developed basic informationquestionnaire, Symptom Checklist90(SCL-90) and Athens Insomnia Scale (AIS)among new-type drug abusers in Wuhan Compulsory Residential Drug AbstinenceInstitution from April2012to November2012. Eighty subjects were selected andrandomly assigned to received tryptophan (1000mg/day, n=40) or placebo (n=40) fortwo weeks in total. And they also needed to complete the SCL-90and AIS at week1(7days) and week2(14days).Results:(1) Among all the323subjects, male and female were79.6%(257/323)and20.4%(66/323) respectively. The average age was32.25±8.85a and it was mainlyin21-30a group (42.4%). Most of the subjects were unemployed and unmarried,which accounted for50.8%(164/323) and45.8%(148/323). A total of217cases (67.2%) had an education of middle school or lower. Of the323subjects,67.2%(217/323) were “Magu” abusers,74.9%(242/323) used drug by chasing dragon,63.8%(206/323) used drug with1-5years and58.5%(189/323) used drug forcuriosity at the first time, meanwhile, most of them used drug at private place (45.5%),and with others (58.2%).(2) The differences of factor scores of SCL-90between new-type drug abusersand common people were statistically significant (P<0.05), and all factor scores werehigher than common people except relationship factor. Furthermore,69%of new-typedrug abusers had sleeping problem and44.5%had insomnia problem. Interpersonalsensitivity, paranoid ideation and psychoticism between amphetamine and ketamineabusers were similar (P>0.05). But the differences of AIS score and the other factor ofSCL-90between them were statistically significant (P<0.05).(3) All the baseline characteristics and treatment adherence were equivalentbetween the tryptophan group and the control (all P>0.05). The AIS score intryptophan group decreased much greater than that in placebo (P<0.01). But nosignificant differences in changes of SCL-90score between groups were found,including each dimension and the overall (all P>0.05). Besides, there were no seriousadverse events happened during the study, and the frequency of adverse eventsbetween two groups was similar (P>0.05).Conclusions:(1) Mental health problems and sleeping disorder are commonamong new-type drug abusers in Wuhan. Some measures need to be taken to improvetheir psychosomatic health.(2) Tryptophan was effective for alleviating sleep disorders in short term amongdetoxified new-type drug addicts, but can not reduce mental symptoms.