Drugs: addicted consumers to emergency care

The drug could be responsible for a high proportion of emergency admissions, according to a study in the number of "Emergency Medicine Journal", available online on the university website upon which the authors *.

Jonathan Benger, the "University of the West of England" and his colleagues report the results of anonymous interviews with 801 patients admitted to the emergency room at a hospital in Bristol, UK.

More than one in three patients admitted having used illegal substances during his life, and 16.1% reported having consumed alcohol in the previous month. Nearly one in ten reported drug use in the past 24 hours.

The doctors who treated these patients were also asked, without knowledge of patient statements, whether the medical condition requiring care was directly or indirectly related to the consumption of illicit substances. The answer was yes in 6.9% of cases.

Among patients whose presence appeared to be directly or indirectly related to drug use, 23 (2.9% of all respondents) were hospitalized after their passage to emergencies, including self-inflicted or problems psychiatric, skin infections, chest pain or deep vein thrombosis.

The numbers of illicit drugs at least once in life obtained in this survey correspond to those of "British Crime Survey 2000", a representative survey of 13,300 British, say the authors. In contrast, the numbers of drug use are almost three times higher, suggesting that the recent drug use significantly increases the need for emergency care, complement each other.

"We believe our results representative of emergency departments in the cities of the United Kingdom, but it is difficult to extrapolate to a larger population of patients. However, the number of ED visits in England alone more than 14 million it is possible that illicit drugs contribute directly or indirectly to 1 million ED visits and 40,000 hospital admissions faster every year, "the researchers conclude.