Premium
Patterns of New Drug Detection in the Drug Abuse Warning Network
Author(s) -
Retka Robert L.
Publication year - 1978
Publication title -
british journal of addiction to alcohol and other drugs
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.424
H-Index - 193
eISSN - 1360-0443
pISSN - 0007-0890
DOI - 10.1111/j.1360-0443.1978.tb00136.x
Subject(s) - drug , fist , drug detection , substance abuse , medicine , drugs of abuse , warning system , medical emergency , psychiatry , computer science , chemistry , chromatography , physiology , telecommunications
The structure of the Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) a, broadly‐based system designed to collect information an drug‐ related deaths and medical emergencies, is described. Likely reporting patterns for various drugs and a methodology for involves the calculation of the number of days between the fist and fiftieth reports of a drug to DAWN. The value resulting for each drug is considered its ‘Emergence Index’ (EI) EIs for drugs reaching their fiftieth mentions in successive months are compared to detect those substances displaying unusual initial activity patterns. Between July 1973 and February 1976 very few drugs were determined to have atypical EIs. Accordingly, it is concluded that there are relatively free truly ‘new’ drugs appearing on the drug abuse scene.