Study assesses financial fallout from drug abuse

July 3, 2008

Drug and alcohol abuse sets people on a path toward heart disease, cancer and other chronic illnesses. A study in the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment reports that hospital costs for this medical fallout can be substantial - and could be avoided with more drug and alcohol treatment.

Lead author Patricia Santora of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and colleagues found that 14 percent of people admitted to Johns Hopkins Hospital from 1994 to 2002 were alcohol or drug abusers.

Of these more than 43,000 patients, the researchers found, about half abused two or more drugs, resulting in hospital costs in 2002 of $28 million.

An additional 25 percent abused alcohol only, incurring $20 million in hospital costs in 2002.

Treatment costs rose in each year of the study period.

"Virtually all ... were admitted for the medical and psychiatric consequences of their abuse," Santora says.

Los Angeles Times