Prevalence and Risk Factors of Emergency Department Presentations with Methamphetamine Intoxication or Dependence: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Abstract

Background: Methamphetamine intoxication presentations to emergency departments (EDs) including trauma centres, general EDs and psychiatric emergency services have risen world-wide. Objectives: A review of the clinical characteristics of patients presenting to a trauma centre or ED with methamphetamine intoxication or dependence to aid development of health service policy and training for health personnel. Methods: PubMed, PsycINFO, CINAHL and Scopus (1990–2017) were searched. A systematic review of all clinical characteristics was conducted, and a meta-analysis undertaken for variables with standard measures (prevalence, age, gender); 23 studies met the inclusion criteria of which 17 could be used in the meta-analysis. Results: Methamphetamine-related presentations were characterised by cardiac complications, psychiatric symptoms and aggression with safety risk to health personnel. The pooled prevalence of methamphetamine positive cases in emergency settings was higher in studies using toxicology analysis to determine methamphetamine use (8 studies, 22.8% 95% CI 15.4–32.5) compared to self-reporting (9 studies 5.7%, 95% CI 2.8–11.2, Q = 12.42, p < 0.001). Pooled variance of methamphetamine positive cases was 57.1% in men and 42.9% in women. The mean age of those who were methamphetamine positive was 28.4 years and for those methamphetamine negative cases it was 38.4 years. Conclusions: In this review, we found a higher prevalence of methamphetamine use amongst males and in the younger demographic. Targeted training programmes for frontline staff and management approaches for prompt multi-disciplinary service engagement are recommended as well as appropriate resourcing, such as mental health staff in EDs or mental health beds to accommodate this subgroup of the patient cohort.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Authors’ Contribution

All authors contributed to the development of the research question, article searching, screening articles, data extraction, assessment of bias, interpretation of the data and writing the draft manuscript. GH performed the meta-analysis and produced the figures. All authors have reviewed and approved the final manuscript.