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Emergency Department Visits Involving Dextromethorphan

Highlights:
  • Dextromethorphan (DXM) is approved by the Food and Drug Administration and is a cough suppressant found in many over-the-counter cough and cold remedies. Dextromethorphan is generally safe when taken in recommended doses but in large amounts can cause dangerous side effects.
  • According to SAMHSA's Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) for 2004, an estimated 12,584 emergency department visits (0.7% of all drug related emergency department visits) involved pharmaceuticals containing dextromethorphan.
  • The rate of emergency department visits resulting from nonmedical use of dextromethorphan for those aged 12 to 20 was 7.1 visits per 100,000 population compared with 2.6 visits or fewer per 100,000 for other age groups.
  • Emergency department patients aged 12 to 20 accounted for almost half (48%) of all the emergency department visits resulting from nonmedical use of dextromethorphan.
  • The rates of DAWN emergency department visits resulting from any type of use of dextromethorphan among those aged 12 to 20 was 10.3 per 100,000 population compared with 4.3 visits per 100,000 for the population overall.
  • Alcohol was implicated in about a third (36%) of the DAWN emergency department visits involving nonmedical use of dextromethorphan for those aged 18 to 20 and in 13% of visits for those aged 12 to 17.

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This Short Report, The New DAWN Report:  Emergency Department Visits Involving Dextromethorphan, is based on the Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN), the primary source of national data on drug related emergency department visits.  DAWN is conducted by the Office of Applied Studies (OAS) in the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).  

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