The authors studied 40 cocaine-dependent subjects admitted to
psychiatric inpatient wards of a metropolitan hospital because of general
psychiatric symptoms. The results indicate that the predominant form of
cocaine administration (88%) was freebasing "crack." DSM-III-R cluster B
personality disorders (N = 17) and schizophrenia (N = 13) constituted the
diagnoses for 75% of the sample. Compared to the schizophrenic patients in
this cohort, the patients with cluster B personality disorders used cocaine
in greater quantities and more frequently and began abuse of the drug at an
earlier age. The escalation in urban areas of psychiatric hospitalizations
attributed to use of crack may be largely related to psychiatric symptoms
in cocaine- dependent patients with personality disorders as well as
cocaine- induced psychopathology in schizophrenic patients.
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