Patients’ compliance to illicit drugs addiction's treatment, is a limiting factor for the effectiveness of these patients’ treatment.

The aim of this research was to study the pharmacological therapy and its side effects, in patients undergoing addiction treatment.

This study selected 31 patients with mean age of 33,61 ± 1,90 years old enrolled in a public mental health service with psychotic disorder related to the use of cocaine, crack an alcohol.

Patients under this study were addicted to alcohol (61,29%), cocaine, crack or the association of both (38,71%).

Effects related to the use of cocaine were delirium/hallucination (50%), cardiovascular effects (27,76%), psychomotor agitation (11,12%). (No effects reported 11,10%).

Patient-reported, crack-related effects were delirium and hallucination (50%), cardiovascular effects (37,50%). (No effects reported 12,50%).

Psychosis (73,08%), aggressive behavior (7,69%), abstinence syndrome (11,54%), were associated to the use of alcohol. (No side effects reported 7,69%)

The pharmacological treatment to these patients were typical neuroleptics (41,94%), atypical neuroleptics (22,58%), typical and atypical neuroleptics associated (29,03%), (No treatment 6,45%).

Side effects related to pharmacological treatment were extrapyramidal effects (56,24%), delirium/hallucination (43,74%), memory impairment (34,37%), anxiety(31,25%),attention deficit (21,87%), psychotic depression (12,50%), verbal communication deficit (3,12%).

These effects were treated with biperiden (58,34%), promethazine or benzodiazepines (25,00%). (No treatment was done in16,67%).

The use of neuroleptics in the treatment of psychotic disorders due to the use of illicit drugs should be evaluated. The side effects related to the neuroleptics must be carefully controlled in order to guarantee the patients' compliance to the treatment.