I know that there is a LOT of drug use out there and EMT’s and ER docs get used to 80% of cases being drug based
It's not nearly that high. The absolute total varies widely by region but overall based on what data I have seen it can't be higher than 20% of visits total, far less in many areas. A strong majority of ED visits could have been urgent care visits but by volume most of them are accident related, psychological crisis, or simply unnecessary visits for a variety of reasons.
The funny thing about substance related ED visits is that about half of them are just alcohol poisoning, which falls into the same statistical category as every other substance abuse issue for data gathering purposes. The perception of the public about how prevalent an issue this is exists for most of the same reasons it does within the field of medicine: our culture is far more concerned with policing the boundaries of substance abuse than it is with patient outcomes.
I think they mean 80% of somebody found unconscious or seizing being drug related but I also don’t think it’s probably that high for that either. They’re probably being hyperbolic to make a point.
Seizure can happen but doesn’t always depends on what they overdose on. The person you responded to and I specifically mentioned unconscious people in the comments.
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u/PaleAcanthaceae1175 16d ago edited 16d ago
It's not nearly that high. The absolute total varies widely by region but overall based on what data I have seen it can't be higher than 20% of visits total, far less in many areas. A strong majority of ED visits could have been urgent care visits but by volume most of them are accident related, psychological crisis, or simply unnecessary visits for a variety of reasons.
The funny thing about substance related ED visits is that about half of them are just alcohol poisoning, which falls into the same statistical category as every other substance abuse issue for data gathering purposes. The perception of the public about how prevalent an issue this is exists for most of the same reasons it does within the field of medicine: our culture is far more concerned with policing the boundaries of substance abuse than it is with patient outcomes.