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Emergency Department Visits Involving Nonmedical Use of Selected Pharmaceuticals

The New DAWN Report:  Emergency Department Visits Involving Nonmedical Use of Selected Pharmaceuticals

  • According to SAMHSA's Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN), nearly 1.3 million emergency department (ED) visits in 2004 were associated with drug misuse/abuse. Nonmedical use of pharmaceuticals was involved in nearly 500,000 of these ED visits.
  • Opiates/opioid analgesics (pain killers) and benzodiazepines were each present in more than 100,000 emergency department visits associated with nonmedical use of pharmaceuticals.
  • Opiates/opioid analgesics include hydrocodone, oxycodone, methadone, codeine, Dilaudid, morphine, Demerol, opium, and any other drug with morphine-like effects.  Benzodiazepines include alprazolam and clonazepam.
  • Muscle relaxants (particularly carisoprodol and cyclobenzaprine) were involved in an estimated 28,000 emergency department visits related to nonmedical use.
  • Two thirds or more of emergency department visits associated with opiates/opioids, benzodiazepines, and muscle relaxants involved multiple drugs. Alcohol was one of the other drugs in about as quarter of such emergency department visits.

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This OAS Short Report, The New DAWN Report:  Emergency Department Visits Involving Nonmedical Use of Selected Pharmaceuticals, is based on the Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN), conducted by the Office of Applied Studies (OAS) in the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).  

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SAMHSA, an agency in the Department of Health and Human Services, is the Federal Government's lead agency for improving the quality and availability of substance abuse prevention, addiction treatment, and mental health services in the United States.

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