Emergency room visits resulting from opioid use have increased 141 percent over 10 years in Orange County, according to a report released Tuesday, Aug. 15, by the Health Care Agency.
Between 2005 and 2015, 7,457 residents went to hospital ERs for reasons such as opioid addiction or heroin poisoning. The report is a follow-up to an April publication on drug and alcohol deaths, which have risen 82 percent since 2000.
The new report makes note of a number of local trends:
- the most commonly prescribed opioids in the county are hydrocodone (62 percent), oxycodone, (16 percent) and morphine (7 percent).
- Sixty-one percent of ER patients were men
- More than half of all patients were age 18 to 34.
- The highest rates of ER visits were in coastal and South County cities
To view the HCA report, go to ochealthinfo.com/civicax/filebank/blobdload.aspx?BlobID=67355.
To read more of Courtney Perkes' article, please click here.
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