Drug-related emergency department (ED) visits were up by nearly 6% in 2023 compared to the previous year.
That’s according to a new report by The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which used data from The Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN).
The report found that the most common type of substance-related ED visit was for alcohol use, followed by cannabis and opioids.
Emergency department visits due to alcohol decreased by 3.6% compared to the previous year, though they remained a frequent occurrence, accounting for 41% of all visits. Opioid-related events also decreased by 3.7%. Meanwhile, cannabis-related events increased by 4.6%.
Researchers found that people between the ages of 26 and 44 had the highest rates of substance-related ED visits. This was true across substance types. Additionally, males had high rates of substance usage compared to females across every substance-related ED visit, except cannabis and benzodiazepine, where there were no significant differences.
Photo credit: SAMSHA
While opioid-related visits declined last year, the report recorded 881,556 incidents in 2023. Almost half of all opioid-related visits involved a prescription opioid. Additionally, 27% involved heroin and 31.5% involved fentanyl.
Researchers reported that fentanyl-related visits spiked by 46% year over year. However, heroin decreased by 40%.
This report comes amid hot-button policy stories on treating opioid use disorders. In November, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) announced that it would extend the flexibilities, which allowed providers to virtually prescribe controlled substances, including medication-assisted treatment (MAT) for substance use disorders (SUDs).
The flexibilities have garnered overwhelming support from the behavioral health industry, with many seeing the regulations to expand access to patients amid a national opioid epidemic.
