A new study, out now in Drug and Alcohol Dependence , that details trends among psychiatric hospitalizations between 2015-2019 finds that while most hospitalizations did not involve any substances, methamphetamine-related hospitalizations have increased while overall number of psychiatric hospitalizations remained stable. Additionally, researchers detail that psychiatric hospitalizations caused by methamphetamine use were highest in the Mountain West region but were also shifting geographically. Rates of methamphetamine-involved psychiatric hospitalizations with were by far the highest in the Mountain West.
As expected, this mirrors rates of self-reported methamphetamine use and methamphetamine-related overdose deaths in the Mountain West. Psychiatric hospitalizations involving methamphetamine use is really taking off in the Midwest and Northeast, in particular." Susan Calcaterra, MD, MPH, professor at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and study lead author While rates of methamphetamine-related psychiatric hospitalizations increased 68% over the study period, opioid-related hospitalizations decreased by 22%.
Methamphetamine rate increases may be attributed to methamphetamines ubiquitousness and affordability, as well as the lack of resources available to manage methamphetamine use. Why opioid-involved psychiatric hospitalizations declined is less clear but may be related to the lethality of fentanyl. "An important takeaway from this study is the need for resources to address the mental and physical treatment of methamphetamine use," says Calcaterra.
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L., et al . (2024).
U.S. Trends in Methamphetamine-Involved Psychiatric Hospitalizations in the United States, 2015-2019.
Drug and Alcohol Dependence . doi.org/10.
1016/j.drugalcdep.2024.
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