Illegal drug use adds to A&E burden
Use of illegal drugs could contribute to one million visits to accident and emergency and 400,000 acute hospital admissions in England each year, say researchers.
By anonymously interviewing 801 patients in an inner city emergency department
in South West England using a semi-structured confidential survey, researchers
found that 6.9 per cent of all attendances were directly or indirectly
related to illegal drug use, and that admission to hospital was required
in almost half of these cases.
The most common diagnoses directly related to illegal drug use were deliberate
self harm or psychiatric problems and acute medical conditions such as
cellulitis, chest pain and deep venous thrombosis. The most common diagnosis
indirectly related to illegal drug use was assault or head injury.
Since patients who were critically ill were excluded from the interviews,
the researchers note that they may have underestimated the prevalence
of life threatening, drug related problems.
The researchers say that they believe these results are representative
of UK inner city emergency departments, and although it is difficult
to extrapolate these results to a wider patient population, they suggest
that the emergency health care burden related to illegal drug use is
substantial and higher than previously reported (Emergency Medicine 2005;
22:872).
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Hospital Pharmacist