Alcohol and drugs: preliminary survey of Brazilian nursing research

Abstract

This bibliographic study surveys knowledge about alcohol and drugs produced by Brazilian nursing until 2004 and registered in online databases, in order to identify the presence of this theme; the origin of this knowledge and means of dissemination, as well as to analyze tendencies in this production. We used: BIREME, CAPES, USP Base of Dissertations and Theses. Abstracts with nurses as the authors or co-authors served as the basic material. Using common descriptors in this area, we found 218 abstracts. Production increased from the 1990's onwards (29.8% of the total). Scientific articles (50.4%) and theses (37.2%) were predominant. Knowledge tended towards three theme categories: use of alcohol and other drugs (62.9%); vulnerable populations (27.5%), and users of alcohol and other drugs (9.6%). Alcohol and drugs appeared as comorbidities in many studies and 38.4% of the articles were published in journals from other health areas.

nursing research; alcohol; drugs; alcoholism