GLOBAL EM
Alcohol Misuse and Its Impact on Emergency Medicine Across the Globe
SAEM PULSE | NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2022
By Alena Pauley, MScGH; Frida Shayo, MD, MMed; and Catherine Staton, MD, MScGH on behalf of the SAEM Global Emergency Medicine Academy
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As a core component of the health care safety net, emergency departments (EDs) have always seen epidemics before or as they rise; our worsening rates of alcohol use disorder are no different. This alarming trend joins the other sociocultural factors impacting who uses and frequents EDs, bringing now more women into this environment. Just within the United States (U.S.), for example, the last 20 years have seen over 50% more alcohol-related ED visits, disproportionately so from women. One study found that from 2006 to 2014, there was a 70% increase in alcohol-related ED visits in U.S. women compared to a 58% increase in men. To effectively tackle this trend that stands to have a tremendous impact at both the local ED and
“...the growing number of alcohol-related visits stand to create greater disruptions around ED patient flow and care.” wider population level, multi-pronged approaches that focus on systemic, preventative care and greater resources to EDs worldwide will be needed. What exactly will this increase in alcohol use mean for emergency medicine? In the short term, the growing number of alcohol-related visits stand to create greater disruptions around ED patient flow and care. As most
ED physicians can attest, intoxicated patients not only tend to be more aggressive—potentially causing harm to themselves, health care staff, and/or other patients—but their altered status makes their complaints more difficult to identify and treat. When EDs across the U.S. are already overwhelmed with critically ill and injured patients packed in overcrowded waiting rooms most days of the week, a rise in intoxicated
