Substance Use-Related ED Visits by Substance Type

This graph shows substance use-related ED visits by substance type, focusing on the most common illicit 

substances and alcohol. Methamphetamine (33.7%) was the most common type of substance involved in 

substance use-related ED visits.

The Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) is a nationwide public health surveillance system administered by the 

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA’s) Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and 

Quality. As of October 15, 2020, data are being abstracted from 49 hospitals. Ultimately, the system will include at least 

50 non-Federal general hospitals with 24-hour emergency departments (EDs), consisting of 10 sentinel hospitals and 

40 probability-sampled hospitals. Data are abstracted directly from hospital electronic health records. DAWN captures 

data on ED visits related to recent substance use and misuse, such as alcohol use, illicit drug use, suicide attempts, and 

nonmedical use of pharmaceuticals.

DAWN data can be used to monitor substance misuse trends and serve as an early warning system to identify new psychoactive substances. Since hospital recruitment is incomplete and the data are unweighted, this profile provides only 

preliminary results that are not generalizable to the US; caution must therefore be exercised in interpreting the data 

presented here.

v 1.0 December 2020 

Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality For more information, please call (240) 276-1250

This profile presents data on ED visits related to methamphetamine use. The information provided below 

summarizes unweighted data abstracted from 4/1/2019 to 10/15/2020. The data on alcohol presented here include 

ED visits related to underage (less than 21 years old) alcohol use and adult (ages 21 years and older) alcohol use in 

combination with other substances since the abstraction of ED visits for adults involving only alcohol was not yet 

complete.

DAWN and Methamphetamine
Methamphetamine Use-Related 

ED Visits by Gender

Methamphetamine Use-Related 

ED Visits 

by Disposition

Methamphetamine Use-Related 

ED Visits by Age

Methamphetamine Use-Related 

ED Visits to Total ED Visits by 

Community Type

This graph shows the percentage of methamphetamine-related ED visits to total ED visits by 

community type. In this graph, the denominator is

total ED visits within each community type. Methamphetamine-related ED visits were a higher proportion 

of total ED visits in urban (1.5%) and suburban (1.4%) 

communities as compared to rural (0.4%) communities.

More than two-thirds (67.6%) of methamphetamine-related ED visits resulted in the patient’s 

release from the ED, such as departing the ED for 

home or receiving a referral for substance use and/

or psychiatric treatment. Remaining dispositions 

included admission to the hospital (12.6%), transfer 

to another facility (8.8%), and other outcomes (11%) 

such as left against medical advice. 

Patients aged 26 to 45 accounted for 62.5% of 

methamphetamine-related ED visits, and patients 

over age 45 comprised 24.7%, the second largest 

proportion of these visits. 

More than two-thirds of methamphetaminerelated ED visits involved male patients (71.8%); 

less than one third (28.1%) of the visits involved 

female patients.

v 1.0 December 2020 

Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality For more information, please call (240) 276-1250

DAWN and Methamphetamine