Doctors often give wrong dosages or bad medication to patience...it is so important that we not add to this unacceptable behavior. We must not raise the stats with our Na Kupuna and Our children..we must stand up to this wrong behavior.
Nonmedical Use of Pharmaceuticals
Representing about a quarter of all drug-related ED visits and over half of ED visits for drug abuse
or misuse, an estimated 1,079,683 ED visits in 2009 involved the nonmedical use of prescription
drugs, over-the-counter medicines, or other types of pharmaceuticals. Over half (53.6%) of ED
visits resulting from nonmedical use of pharmaceuticals involved multiple drugs, and 17.8 percent
involved alcohol.
Visits for nonmedical use of pharmaceuticals did not differ between males and females (349.2 and
354.0 visits per 100,000 population, respectively). On the other hand, notable differences were
seen between age categories: rates for patients aged 18 to 34 were over 500 visits per 100,000
population, with lower levels observed for younger and older patients.
Almost 40 percent (38.7%) of patients misusing or abusing pharmaceuticals received some form of
follow-up care, including referral to detox/treatment (2.6%), admission to the hospital (26.5%), or
transfer to another facility (9.7%). Of the remaining patients, most were treated and released to
home (54.2%) or had other outcomes. This distribution of visit dispositions is similar to that found
for ED visits involving illicit drugs.
Pain relievers were the most common type of drugs reported in the nonmedical use category of ED
visits (47.8%). Among specific types of pain relievers, higher levels were seen for the narcotic pain
relievers oxycodone, hydrocodone, and methadone (13.7%, 8.0%, and 5.8%, respectively). Drugs
used to treat anxiety and insomnia were also seen frequently (33.6%) in visits related to
nonmedical use of pharmaceuticals. Benzodiazepines were involved in 29.0 percent of such ED
visits, with alprazolam (e.g., Xanax®), indicated in 10.4 percent of such visits.
Medical emergencies related to the nonmedical use of pharmaceuticals increased 101 percent
from 2004 to 2009, rising from about half a million visits to over one million visits. Contributing to
this rise are significant long-term increases in the number of visits involving narcotic pain relievers
that increased 137 percent over the 2004 level of 144,644 visits. Specific narcotic drugs that more
than doubled their involvement in ED visits between 2004 and 2009 were fentanyl, hydrocodone,
hydromorphone, morphine, and oxycodone. Drugs for anxiety and insomnia also saw large
increases (105%). As noted earlier, there are a number of factors that may be contributing to these
increases.
Replies