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Prevalence of Substance Abuse among Patients with Physical Diseases Seen in an Emergency Room in Japan
Author(s) -
Hirabayashi Naotsugu,
Wada Kiyoshi,
Kimura Tomoki,
Hirabayashi Eiichi,
Mishima Siroh,
Yukioka Tetsuo,
Hanaoka Tomoyuki,
Iimori Makio
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
the american journal on addictions
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.997
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1521-0391
pISSN - 1055-0496
DOI - 10.1080/10550490490483107
Subject(s) - methamphetamine , medicine , confidence interval , substance abuse , population , demography , psychiatry , environmental health , sociology
According to a nationwide general population survey on drug use in Japan, the lifetime prevalence of methamphetamine is low when compared to the United States. To confirm the hypothesis of a lower point prevalence of methamphetamine in an emergency room (ER) in Japan than in the United States, we collected blood specimens from an urban area of heavy methamphetamine prevalence in Tokyo, Japan, and analyzed the sera using REMEDi‐HS based on an unlinked anonymity. Twenty kinds of drugs other than psycho‐tropics were detected in 55 of 279 subjects (19.7%). Nineteen kinds of psychotropics were detected in twenty (7.2%) subjects. Psychotropics were detected in eleven patients with physical diseases and no acute intoxication. Methamphetamines were detected in three subjects (1.09%,95% confidence interval 1.073 ∼ 1.088) and in one of 46 subjects with injury (2.2%). It is necessary to look at the methodological differences between this study and previous studies; however, this finding supports the lower point prevalence of methamphetamine in an ER in Japan than in an ER in the United States.