Highlights of the 2011 Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) Findings on Drug-Related Emergency Department Visits

In Brief

In 2011, there were 5.1 million drug-related emergency department (ED) visits; about one half (49 percent) were attributed to drug misuse or abuse with a nearly equal percentage (45 percent) attributed to adverse drug reactions ED visits involving use of illicit drugs were relatively stable from 2004 (991,640 visits) to 2009 (974,392 visits) but increased from 2009 to 2011 (1,252,500 visits); between 2009 and 2011, the rate of visits involving illicit stimulants increased 68 percent, and the rate of visits involving marijuana rose 19 percent ED visits involving misuse or abuse of pharmaceuticals increased from 2004 (626,470 visits) through 2011 (1,428,145 visits); the most commonly involved drugs were anti-anxiety and insomnia medications and narcotic pain relievers (160.9 and 134.8 visits per 100,000 ...

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Drug addiction begins with a compulsive drive to take a drug despite the consequences. While traditionally viewed as experimentation in teen years or simply "bad choices", recent studies indicate that repeated drug use leads to long lasting changes in the brain that effect voluntary control. 

As parents we want to give our children benefit of doubt, especially when they come at us with questions like "Why don't you just trust me?" We so want to believe in our children, but the truth is that they have to earn our trust. Even smart kids do drugs. A child's brain does not fully develop until about the age of 25 and even longer in some boys. How can we expect them to act like adults when they physiologically haven't even fully grown into an adult.  Adolescence is a hard time to assess what is normal. It's important to ...

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Drugs are made of chemicals, many similar to the chemicals already in our system. Drugs alter the way nerve cells normally send, receive, and process information. They do this by (1) imitating the brain’s natural chemical messengers, (2) by over-stimulating the “reward circuit” of the brain, (3) flooding the brain with excess chemicals, and (4) binding to receptors in the brain.

For example, some drugs, such as marijuana and heroin, have a similar structure to chemical messengers, called neurotransmitters, which are naturally produced by the brain. Because of this similarity, these drugs are able to “fool” the brain’s receptors and activate nerve cells to send abnormal messages. This results in the “high” you feel when you take these drugs.

Other drugs, such as cocaine or methamphetamine, can cause the nerve cells to release abnormally large amounts of natural neurotransmitters, or prevent the normal recycling of these brain chemicals ...

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I have personally always been of the mindset that addiction is a choice rather than a disease. If I can say no to alcohol and drugs then why couldn't everyone else? It was a consciencious choice I had made. I had experimented with alcohol and drugs in my teens and early twenties, but it was never something I had chosen to do to the point of becoming an addict. I could manage to work and school and keep the party life to a minimum. Addiction as a disease seemed to me to be a crutch, or lame excuse.

I began to get a better understanding of addiction as a disease when I read something that explained the concept of a disease. A disease causes its own symptoms and is not itself a symptom of another disease. Alcoholism/drug abuse addiction is felt to be a primary disease in that ...

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If you hear your teens talking about Roxies they are talking about Roxicodone. Similar to oxycodone it is used to treat moderate to severe pain. It may be used before surgery to sedate the patient and reduce fear. Roxicodone is a narcotic pain reliever. It works by dulling the pain perception center in the brain. It may also affect other body systems (eg, respiratory and circulatory systems) at higher doses.

Teens are crushing up the drug and snorting it for a quicker release. This is a highly addictive opiod. Continued use of the drug can lead to serious withdrawal symptoms.

Teens raid their friends parents medicine cabinets to obtain such drugs. Teens can get it easily off the street, including the bus lot at school. I know of one teen who was so desperate for a fix, he went to the emergency room making up a sory that he was ...

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http://www.medpagetoday.com/Neurology/PainManagement/34650