Background: Substance addiction is a growing problem in society where the cause of death has increased during the last couple of years. Using substances affects the cognitive, mental and physical abilities of the human being, which usually leads to a tolerance for the preparation. The general nurse has an obligation to respond to patients with an ethical approach that includes listening and respecting patients integrity, past and values. Nurses describe that caring for the patients is a risk for their own safety and they don’t possess enough knowledge about substance abuse, which leads to a negative view of the patients.

Aim: The aim was to describe how people with substance addiction experiences treatments from health care professionals.

Method: A literature review that includes 11 qualitative articles and one with mixed-methods analysed according to Friberg (2017) to find similarities and differences to implement to the result which is divided into main and sub-categories.

Results: The result showed that there were a lot of negative experiences according to the patients in the care meeting, but there were also positive experiences. The main categories presented are the patients feelings in the healthcare meeting and the lack of knowledge of substance dependence. The subcategories are discrimination and exclusion, feelings of shame and guilt, positive experiences, lack of treatment and lack of information in the healthcare meeting.

Conclusion: The literature review illustrates the experience of healthcare by people with substance addicition. The result showed both positive and negative experiences, however the negative dominated the results, in that patients with substance addiction were not treated as every other patient group.