Alcohol and drugs are top causes for young people's visits to emergency: study

If you attended to a young patient in an emergency department in recent years, there’s a good chance alcohol or drugs—or both—was the reason for the medical crisis. According to a four-year study of emergency departments in three Canadian communities, alcohol was a factor in close to 70% of the 4,634 cases studied by the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction. Cannabis was the second-most reported substance, found in close to 40% of cases. Opioids were involved in just under 10% of cases. The study, which looked at ED visits from January 2016 to December 2019 in Sherbrooke, Que., Saskatoon, Sask., and the Greater Halifax Region in Nova Scotia, focused on the presence of three psychoactive substances—alcohol, cannabis and opioids—among patients aged 12 to 24 years old who visited EDs with injuries that included drug toxicity, falls, vehicle accidents, violence and self-harm including attempted suicide. Many of these patients came into emergency in medical states considered life-threatening and in 40% of cases, more than one psychoactive drug had been consumed. Read: B.C. announces 'historic' expansion of addiction services for youth Close to 30% of the cases involved patients under the minimum legal drinking age in their region, and a large proportion of the patients had gone to emergency previously for a substance-related medical incident. “This study highlights a need to pay closer attention to the substance use of young people in Canada,” said CCSA CEO Alexander Caudarella. “Thousands of young people end up in Canada’s emergency departments every year because of alcohol and other substances. The fact that so many had previous ED presentations indicates we have a long way to go to ensure people get the help they need when they need it.” This is especially urgent as the healthcare system looks to to reduce strain on emergency departments across Canada, added Caudarella. While there are similarities across regions, the findings also highlighted certain differences between the three communities in the study. For example, in 2019 Sherbrooke had significantly fewer alcohol- and cannabis-related cases—perhaps the result of preventive measures the community implemented following a previous study on alcohol toxicity among youth in emergency departments. By comparison, Saskatoon and Greater Halifax either trended upwards or showed little change, according to the study. Read: Halifax proposes 'sobering centre' for highly impaired as alternative to lockup

Alcohol and drugs are top causes for young people's visits to emergency: study

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