GHB, the drug, can be addictive, even after only a few weeks in some cases. The withdrawal symptoms are notoriously violent, even life-threatening so it’s not odd that GHB addicts seek help. In fact, more and more are asking for help. In an article in Drug and Alcohol Dependence, a group of experts, including Martijn van Noorden from the LUMC, have made an assessment of the types of people who seek help.
On the face of it, they don’t seem differ that much from addicts of other party drugs: a typical GHB dependent is a young male with little education. Nearly half are unemployed and over half of them use another drug in combination with GBH. A noticeable fact is that a large number of addicts have trouble sleeping, although it is not clear whether the sleeplessness is caused by the addiction alone, or even if it might partly have induced the addiction. However, it is clear that the more trouble they have sleeping, the more serious the dependency is.