Am J Psychiatry 1996; 153:789-793
Copyright © 1996 by American Psychiatric Association
Amphetamine use: return of an old scourge in a consultation psychiatry setting
HT Baberg, RA Nelesen and JE Dimsdale
Department of Medical Psychology, University of Bochum, Germany.
OBJECTIVE: Recreational use of amphetamine and its analogues has increased
considerably during the last decade. The aim of this study was to determine
possible demographic characteristics of amphetamine users and nonusers who
were seen in psychiatric consultations on inpatient medical and surgery
wards. METHOD: The authors examined data from 2,983 patients admitted to
the University of California, San Diego, Medical Center and seen by
consultation-liaison psychiatrists from January 1989 to June 1995.
Amphetamine use was identified by the results of toxicological screening or
patients' self-reports. RESULTS: Throughout the interval covered by the
analysis, 8.7% of the patients with consultations were current amphetamine
users. The percentage of users decreased from 9.1% in 1989 to 4.5% in 1992
but increased after that to reach 15.6% in the first half of 1995. The
users were generally younger than the nonusers; they were typically male,
white, single, uninsured, and unemployed. In comparison with nonusers, the
users were more likely to have a past psychiatric history (outpatient
treatment or inpatient admission) and a family history of psychiatric
disorder. The users were more often admitted because of suicide attempts,
had a higher probability of being HIV-positive, and were overrepresented in
the psychiatric consultations requested by the departments of infectious
diseases, obstetrics/gynecology, and trauma surgery. CONCLUSIONS: The high
prevalence of amphetamine-using patients referred for psychiatric
consultation is striking. Although young white men were especially likely
to be users, there were users in all age groups, in nearly all hospital
wards, and with a variety of psychiatric symptoms.
