A Study of Drug Misusers' Contacts with General Practitioners

Abstract

One hundred thirty-six drug misusers attending a Community Drug Team completed an anonymous questionnaire regarding their experience of GPs. Of these, 88% were currently registered with a GP, 18% admitted to registering with more than one GP at a time, and 30% had been removed from a GP's list before. Many misusers believed their GP's attitude towards them to be negative, but there was no clear association between this and the stability of their registration. More misusers believed their GPs were willing to prescribe tranquillisers than methadone. The pattern of previous prescribing was not apparently influenced by the stability of the relationship between the GP and misuser. Data are also presented of a questionnaire study of 15 primary care team members from the same district, focusing on their attitudes, skills and knowledge regarding drug misuse. This study suggests that resources might best be concentrated on facilitating GPs with a positive attitude to misusers as a group.

Key Words:

• Drug misuser
• general practitioner
• attitude
• registration
• prescribing