title: Patterns of substance use among patients in an urban psychiatric emergency service.
abstract: Data from patients visiting an urban psychiatric emergency service in California were examined to document incidence and patterns of substance use and ethnic differences among users. A total of 392 patients were randomly assigned to receive a drug screen (N = 198) or to receive usual care (N = 194). Forty-four percent of the mandatorily screened patients had positive screens for any substances: 37 percent were positive for any drugs, and 7 percent were positive for alcohol only. Cocaine was present in 62 percent of the drug-positive screens. Blacks were two and a half times more likely than whites to have positive screens for drugs and five times more likely to have positive screens for cocaine.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco, USA. mschilr@itsa.ucsf.edu
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Schiller
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Shumway
authors.forename: S L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Batki
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002140:California / Q000453:epidemiology; D004637:Emergency Services, Psychiatric / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000534:rehabilitation; D019037:Urban Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*