The results of the last 20 years of research on addictions in Centros de Integración Juvenil (CIJ) and their application in the development of care strategies will be presented. The review gathers the results of works developed in 4 main research lines: Epidemiological, psychosocial, clinical, and evaluative as well as community diagnostic studies carried out for the planning of the care services. This journey shows, in some way, the evolution of the phenomenon of addictions in a certain population sector that is the focus of CIJ’s care programs—basically made up of students and applicants for treatment—of its magnitude and impact of the factors and disorders associated with it, the characteristics of the demand for treatment, the needs for preventive care, etc.; and at the same time it is a sample of the different views from which the study of this problem has been addressed over time. From exploratory, correlational studies, to prospective, and multivariate studies and from the incorporation of qualitative research methods and the introduction of priority thematic axes such as the sex perspective, violence, migration and dual disorders, among others.