Drug abuse and serum nutritional biomarkers: A retrospective cohort study

Abstract

Introduction: Drug abuse is a public health problem around the globe. Its implications in human health are harmful, compromising nutritional status. It has been shown that malnutrition is moderately prevalent in drug addicts, and a nutritional prescription is significantly beneficial for these patients. Available literature suggests altered blood serum biochemical data in drug addicts. Our study focused on blood serum nutritional biomarkers in drug addicts who did not have a nutritional assessment or treatment. This study aimed to analyze nutritional blood serum biomarkers in subjects diagnosed with drug addiction from January 2010 to June 2020. Material and Methods: The research was a retrospective cohort, analytical, observational, and was based on a convenience sample. Data about blood serum AST, ALT, fasting glucose, urea, creatinine, total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, triglycerides, and hemoglobin were analyzed from a database of 103 subjects diagnosed with mental and behavioral disorders due to the use of drugs and other psychoactive substances (ICD-10: F10-F19) in the Institute of Neurosciences (INC). Consumed drugs were alcohol, cocaine, amphetamines, MDNA, opioids, marijuana, and psychotropic drugs. Results: The medians of hemoglobin, total cholesterol, HDL, and creatinine statistically differed between genders and age groups. There were more cases of low blood hemoglobin and hyperglycemia levels in men, (20.4%, and 8.7%, respectively) than women (4.9%, and 0%, respectively). There were low levels of fasting glucose in 8.8% of our sample. Serum creatinine levels were significantly increased in subjects aged 30 or more. Conclusions: In our sample, there were statistically different medians of hemoglobin, total cholesterol, HDL, and creatinine among groups of gender and age in drug addicts. All medians were within the normal range.