This occasional paper contains information gathered by the National Drug Treatment Reporting System (NDTRS), an epidemiological database on treated drug misuse complied by the Drug Misuse Research Division (DMRD) of the Health Research Board (HRB).

Three health boards, the Southern Health Board (SHB), the South Eastern Health Board (SEHB) and the Mid Western Health Board (MWHB) collect data on alcohol using the NDTRS forms and this report analyses the data from the SEHB and the SHB from 2000 to 2002. In the SEHB, 71.2% of those reporting substance recorded alcohol as their main problem drug. This rose to 76.7% in 2001 and fell to 71.5% in 2002. For the SHB 67.3% of those reporting for substance use treatment reported for alcohol in 2000. This fell to 61% in 2001 and rose slightly to 34.2% in 2002.