Drug Abuse Warning Network Report

The Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) report, developed by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), provides the latest estimates drug-related Emergency Department visits.

Key points from the study include:

• In 2006, hospitals in the United States delivered a total of 113 million Emergency Department (ED) visits, and DAWN estimates that 1,742,887 ED visits were associated with drug use.
• For 2006, DAWN estimates that 577,521 ED visits involved either alcohol in combination with another drug (all ages) or alcohol alone for patients under the age of 21. This is about one third (33%) of all drug use ED visits.
• There were 126,704 ED visits by patients under age 21 where alcohol was the only substance involved in the visit.

This document is available at http://dawninfo.samhsa.gov/files/ED2006/DAWN2k6ED.htm.