This study aimed to characterize and understand the circumstance under wich women carrying problems related to psychoactive substance use had their first contact with a specialized service in alcohol and other drugs. Exploratory and descriptive study of quantitative and qualitative approach. We retrieved of the information contained in medical records of 412 women cared in a service specializing in alcohol and other drugs. We held a quantitative data exploratory analysis and grouped qualitative data, wich were analyzed as for their content analysis, resulting in five themes. Results: the average age of women first contact with the drugs was 16 years, being alcohol, tobacco and marijuana the most commonly used substances. We concluded that, during adolescence, women are more vulnerable to the first contact with psychoactive substances, and that social and family contexts exert influence on the initiation of drug use.
WOMEN; Alcoholism; Substance-related disorders
