Additional psychoactive substance use in adolescents hospitalised with acute alcohol intoxication

Introduction
Simultaneous use of alcohol and drugs is associated with additional risks for adolescents’ health and well-being. The aim of this study was to assess if adolescents hospitalised with acute alcohol intoxication (AAI) are at risk for additional drug use.

Material and methods
Data from adolescents with an AAI admitted to hospital was collected including results from urine sampling for drugs. Independent sample t-test and χ2 test were used to analyse the data; p < 0.05, which was considered significant.

Results
A total of 101 Dutch adolescents were included in the sample, of whom 51.5% were males with a mean age of 15.8 years. The average blood ethanol concentration was 1.71‰. We observed that 10.9% of the toxicology screenings were positive for additional drugs, of which all but one were cannabinoids. We found no difference in sex, age, ethanol levels, day of intoxication and hospital length of stay between drug users and non-drug users.

Discussion
Approximately 9.2% of Dutch adolescents have used cannabinoids at least once in their life time, which is comparable with data from a national survey on drug use in America. Based on these observations, we may conclude that the use of cannabis during an episode of AAI is similar to other Dutch teenager use and they are not at higher risk of drug use.

Conclusions
This study shows additional drug abuse in more than 10% of adolescents with an AAI. More research is needed to gain insight into the long term consequences of alcohol and drug abuse in these patients.