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Substance Use–Related Outpatient Consultations in Specialized Health Care: An Underestimated Entity
Author(s) -
Sillanaukee Päivi,
Kääriäinen Janne,
Sillanaukee Pekka,
Poutanen Pauli,
Seppä Kaija
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
alcoholism: clinical and experimental research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.267
H-Index - 153
eISSN - 1530-0277
pISSN - 0145-6008
DOI - 10.1111/j.1530-0277.2002.tb02679.x
Subject(s) - medicine , emergency department , retrospective cohort study , prospective cohort study , substance use , emergency medicine , outpatient clinic , ambulatory care , health care , medical emergency , family medicine , psychiatry , economics , economic growth
Background To study the occurrence and documentation of substance use related outpatient visits in specialized health care. Methods The diagnosis recorded in retrospective discharge data in Tampere University Hospital for 6 years was compared with the prospective data gathered from separately completed forms added during an 8‐week period to every outpatient's discharge data. In this form, the relation of substance use and the actual reason for the consultation were specifically elicited. Results On the basis of diagnoses, retrospectively, 0.4% (6,666 of 1,555,898) of outpatient visits were caused by substance use. In the prospective part of the study, 5.6% of visits (1,401/25,014) were related to substance use. Retrospective study demonstrated 2% prevalence of substance use, whereas prospective study showed 36% substance use–related visits at the emergency room. According to the retrospective discharge data, alcohol‐related organ damages were the major reason for substance use–related outpatient visits. In the prospective study, the proportion of acute traumas was most prevalent. Conclusions Our study indicates that substance use–related visits often remain undetected in specialized health care. Substance use–related visits were underdocumented/undetected in the emergency room. Using a simple separate form could dramatically increase the detection of substance use–related visits.