The short report “Highlights of the 2009 Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) Findings on Drug-Related Emergency Department Visits” summarizes the key findings and is available at: http://oas.samhsa.gov/2k10/DAWN034/EDHighlights.cfm in html and pdf format.
Some findings of note include:
- In 2009, there were nearly 4.6 million drug-related emergency department (ED) visits of which about one half (49.8 percent, or 2.3 million) were attributed to adverse reactions to pharmaceuticals and almost one half (45.1 percent, or 2.1 million) were attributed to drug misuse or abuse
- In 2009, ED visits resulting from the misuse or abuse of pharmaceuticals occurred at a rate of 405.4 visits per 100,000 population compared with a rate of 317.1 per 100,000 population for illicit drugs
- ED visits involving misuse or abuse of pharmaceuticals increased 98.4 percent between 2004 and 2009, from 627,291 visits in 2004 to 1,244,679 visits in 2009
- ED visits involving adverse reactions to pharmaceuticals taken as prescribed increased 82.9 percent between 2005 and 2009, from 1,250,377 visits in 2005 to 2,287,273 visits in 2009
- Data tables containing detailed estimates are available at the DAWN website and are available in html and Excel.
National estimates: http://dawninfo.samhsa.gov/data/
Metropolitan area estimates: http://dawninfo.samhsa.gov/data/default.asp?met=Met
