Substance Abuse in WV - West Virginia State Medical Association

Scientific Article | Special IssueTable 3Table 3. Reason for Encounter Reason in for 2006. Encounter in 2006Other (psychiatric disorders, drug abuse, 272aches and pains, GI and GYN complaints)Decreased level of consciousness 67Chest Pain 61Seizure 14Cardiac arrhythmia 10Intracranial bleed 3Rhabdomyolysis 1Stroke 1HypertensionNonetimes, 16 with 39% of suicide victimstesting positive for cocaine. 14The mean age of the patientsin our sample (35) was within therange for the national average(18-45) 5 ; we did, however, notethe mode age seen at CAMC was48 years old. The number of maleusers in this study was slightlyhigher than that of female users,a figure for which a comparativenumber is difficult to find as sexdifferences vary in most studies.Most, however, report more malethan female users, and our data are6, 9, 18consistent with that reporting.Weber et al (2003) found in theirstudy that 18% of cocaine users didnot report their cocaine use. 18 Inour sample, however, nearly 58%withheld that information. Many ofour patients also tested positive forother drugs such as THC, opiates,and benzodiazepines, with thenumber one concurrent drug beingTHC, consistent with a finding byKedia et al (2007). 4 There were alsoa number of polydrug abusers,with at least nine patients showingcocaine, THC, benzodiazepines,opiates, and amines in their UDS;however, UDS do not take intoaccount the prescription drugs thatpatients use for various medicaland psychiatric illnesses.The most common psychiatricdiagnoses in this study weredepression and bipolar disorder,and most patients in the samplevisited the ER for drug-relatedor psychiatric problems. Many ofthese patients made repeat visitsover 2005-2007 period, consistentwith Havassy and Arns’(1998)study showing that patients withsubstance abuse disorders andpsychiatric disorders have higherrates of rehospitalization. 4Very few of the patients in thissample presented with medicalproblems (see table 3). Only 14%Charleston WV800-788-3844Parkersburg, WV304-485-6584Providing professional services to physician practices for over 35 years:8 Practice Analysis & Benchmarking8 Tax Planning & Preparation8 Core Accounting Services8 Practice Operation Improvement8 Regulatory Compliancewww.suttlecpas.com82 West Virginia Medical Journal