NCJ Number
177747
Date Published
1996
Length
160 pages
Annotation
This report presents information on drug-abuse-related hospital emergency department (ED) episodes collected through the Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) for calendar year 1994.
Abstract
The data are weighted estimates that represent all drug abuse emergency department episodes in the total coterminous United States and in 21 metropolitan areas. Data show that during 1994 an estimated 518,521 drug-abuse-related ED episodes involving 900,317 drug mentions occurred at hospitals in the coterminous United States. Fifty-one percent of the episodes involved male patients, and 54 percent of drug-abuse patients were white, 27 percent were black, and 10 percent were Hispanic. Patients 6 to 17 years old accounted for 12 percent of ED drug abuse episodes; those 18 to 25 years old accounted for 22 percent, and those 26 years old or older accounted for 66 percent. Fifty-one percent of episodes involved more than one drug. Suicide was the motive for drug use in 39 percent of the episodes (53 percent among female patients and 25 percent among males). Overdose was the reason for the ED visit in 52 percent of all episodes. Cocaine was mentioned in 37 percent of male episodes and 18 percent of female episodes. For black patients, cocaine was reported in 55 percent of ED episodes, and for Hispanic patients in 27 percent of episodes. The metropolitan areas with the greatest numbers of drug-related ED episodes were New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Detroit. The number of drug-related ED episodes increased 12 percent, from 460,910 in 1993 to 518,521 in 1994, with statistically significant increases seen for male and female patients, for white and black patients, and for patients in all age groups except those aged 6 to 11 or those 55 years old and older. 87 tables