Abstract
In Japan, the significance of nursing care for hospitalized drug dependent patients have not been approved yet. The purpose of this study was to describe how drug dependent persons experience their first hospitalization to psychiatric hospitals and discuss the possibility and limitation of nursing care. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with five users of rehabilitation facilities who had admitted once to the psychiatric hospitals. Results were as follows: They felt scared and helpless before the hospitalization. After hospitalization they suffered from severe side effects of medication and the relations with other patients and staff, but they didn't ask nurses for help in the ward, feeling helpless and desperate. The recovery of secure feeling and connection with others should be necessary for the first hospitalization of drug dependent person.
