Thursday, January 26, 2012

More hospitalization for drug and alcohol overdose

From a study abstract:

RESULTS:

Hospitalization rates for alcohol overdoses alone increased 25% from 1999 to 2008, reaching 29,412 cases in 2008 at a cost of $266 million. Hospitalization rates for drug overdoses alone increased 55%, totaling 113,907 cases in 2008 at a cost of $737 million. Hospitalization rates for combined alcohol and drug overdoses increased 76%, with 29,202 cases in 2008 at a cost of $198 million.

It would be interesting to know which drugs are most responsible for hospitalization. And how many of these patients died.


Source:
J Stud Alcohol Drugs. 2011 Sep;72(5):774-86.
Hospitalizations for alcohol and drug overdoses in young adults ages 18-24 in the United States, 1999-2008: results from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample.
White AM, Hingson RW, Pan IJ, Yi HY.
Source
Division of Epidemiology and Prevention Research, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892-9304, USA. whitea4@mail.nih.gov