In 2011, 3.9% Of Emergency Department Visits Were Drug-Related

In 2011, there were 5.1 million drug-related emergency department visits, representing about 3.9% of the approximately 130 million emergency department visits made that year. About 49% of the 5.1 million drug-related emergency department visits in 2011 were attributed to drug misuse or abuse; about 45% were attributed to adverse drug reactions. There were 1.2 million emergency department visits involving use of illegal drugs; another 1.4 million visits involved misuse or abuse of pharmaceuticals such as anti-anxiety and insomnia medications and narcotic pain relievers. Adverse reactions to drugs were involved in 2.3 . . .