NCJ Number
204890
Date Published
March 2004
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This DAWN (Drug Abuse Warning Network) report presents data on the number and types of drug-related visits to 12 hospitals in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area in 2002.
Abstract
Currently hospitals in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area and 20 other metropolitan areas participate in the DAWN network, as they follow standard procedures for keeping records on cases that have involved medical treatment for drug abuse. Of the over 780,000 visits to the emergency departments (ED's) of the 12 Minneapolis-St. Paul DAWN hospitals in 2002, approximately 1 percent (6,552) were related to drug abuse. The most common drugs involved in these ED visits were alcohol in combination with other drugs (2,102); cocaine (1,454); marijuana (1,233); narcotic analgesics (1,040); and benzodiazepines (691). Between 1995 and 2002, cocaine-related ED visits in Minneapolis-St. Paul increased 173 percent, from 20 to 55 visits per 100,000 population. Among the 21 DAWN areas, Minneapolis-St.Paul ranked in the bottom 3 regarding ED visits related to drug abuse overall and for cocaine. From 1995 to 2002, marijuana-related ED visits in Minneapolis-St. Paul increased 129 percent, from 20 to 47 visits per 100,000 population, somewhat less than the national rate over this same period. From 1995 to 2002, pain relievers involved in drug abuse-related ED visits nearly doubled in Minneapolis-St. Paul, from 20 to 40 mentions per 100,000 population. Hydrocodone, oxycodone, and methadone were the most often reported pain relievers in drug-related ED visits in 2002. Four figures compare Minneapolis-St. Paul's 2002 drug abuse-related ED-visit rates for cocaine, marijuana, pain relievers, and benzodiazepines with the 20 other DAWN sites.