Amphetamines is a highly addictive substance that has caused serious public health problems globally. There is emerging evidence of serious long-term effects of amphetamine use, including depression, anxiety, psychosis and memory disturbance.
Royal Perth Hospital (RPH) in Western Australia (WA) experience many amphetamine-related presentations to their Emergency Department (ED) with 156 presentations to the ED being judged as amphetamine-related in a 3 month period in 2005. The mean time spent in the ED for the amphetamine-related presentation was 6 hours, with 32.1% of patients requiring sedation. Of the 156 presentations, 39.7% of patients were admitted and 37.2% required psychiatric evaluation. Repeat attendance was also common, with 45.5% having previous amphetamine-related presentations to the RPH ED. Amphetamine-related presentations comprise 1.2% of all ED attendances and have a major impact on hospital EDs. Patients are often agitated and aggressive, require extensive resources, and frequently re-attend. The burden of amphetamine-related illnesses on EDs is likely to increase in the future. Read more about this study.
Data from the Emergency Department Information Service found that between 2005 and 2010, there were a total of 1872 reported amphetamine-related ED presentations to all metropolitan hospitals in WA.
A pilot study was also developed at RPH to determine if amphetamine users had brain abnormalities that neither they nor their doctors treating them suspected. People who presented to the RPH ED with amphetamine-related symptoms were eligible to be recruited for the study. Brain abnormalities were detected using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), and is defined when the brain has been injured by drug use resulting in an abnormality in the brain. Read more about this study and see the case studies.
Another study was developed to examine trends in hospital separations that relate to “drug-induced” psychosis for cannabis and methamphetamine use in the Australian population between July 1993 – June 2004, with drug specific trends specifically for cannabis and amphetamines between1999–2004.
Results from this study showed that there have been notable increases in hospital separations due to drug-induced psychosis, which appear to have been amphetamine-related rather than cannabis-related episodes. The rate of hospital separations was higher for amphetamine users than for cannabis users in all age groups and the rate increased among older amphetamine users. The results indicate that the risk of hospitalisation for a drug-induced psychotic episode associated with amphetamine use appears to be greater than that for cannabis use in all age groups. Read more about this study.
Data from Mental Health Information Service found that between 2006 and 2010, there was a reported 2062 persons with a primary diagnosis of amphetamine-related psychosis in outpatient and inpatient services of metropolitan hospitals in WA.