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Hospital admissions for drugs and mental health reach decade high

The number of people admitted to English hospitals for poisoning or mental health issues related to drugs has reached its highest for the past decade.

Official figures show 15,074 incidences of people in hospital because of illegal drug poisoning in the period 2015-16, representing a 51% increase on figures for 2005-6. Mental health cases related to drugs numbered 81,904.

Experts in public health believe that falling investment in drug treatment services could be contributing to the increase. The drugs policy lead for the Royal Society for Public Health, Ed Morrow, said, “Without adequate funding, increases in drug harm are likely to continue – and to hit the most deprived areas hardest.” NHS Digital stated that drug misuse deaths had also reached their highest since analogous records began, in 1993. Despite these hospital admissions increases, a summary accompanying them said that drug use was falling.

The report stated, “In 2015-16, around 1 in 12 (8.4%) adults aged 16 to 59 had taken an illicit drug in the last year. This equates to around 2.7 million people. This level of drug use was similar to 2014-15, but is significantly lower than a decade ago.”

The figures show that Blackpool had the highest number of hospital admissions where drug poisoning was the cause. For every 100,000 people in Blackpool, there were 116 hospital admissions. Liverpool registered the highest number of admissions for behavioural disorders or mental health issues related to drugs. For every 100,000 Liverpool residents, there were 491 hospital admissions.

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