Domestic minor sex trafficking in the United States.

By now, most social workers are familiar with the issue of human trafficking. However, many are likely unfamiliar with research indicating that youths constitute the most vulnerable group in the United States for becoming victims of sex trafficking and that most women in prostitution actually entered as minors. Some experts are now referring to the sex trafficking of U.

The association of psychiatric comorbidity and use of the emergency department among persons with substance use disorders: an observational cohort study.

Background: Psychiatric and substance use problems are commonly found to be contributing factors to frequent Emergency Department (ED) use, yet little research has focused on the association between substance use and psychiatric comorbidity. This study assesses the association of a psychiatric comorbidity on (ED) use among patients with substance use disorders (SUDs).

Methods: The study focuses on 6,865 patients who were diagnosed with SUDs in the ED of a large urban hospital in the southern United States from January 1994 - June 1998.

Disparities in hospitalization for diabetes among persons with and without co-occurring mental disorders.

Objectives: This article describes differences in hospitalization for diabetes among persons with diabetes who did or did not have co-occurring mental illness and who presented in the emergency department of a large county hospital located in the Southwest.

Methods: Four and a half years of administrative data were used and consisted of all emergency visits for diabetes (N = 4,275) made by persons with and without co-occurring mental disorders. The dependent variable was whether the emergency visit resulted in hospitalization.

Utilization of emergency center services by older adults with a psychiatric diagnosis.

Information regarding older adult emergency center (EC) patient characteristics remains limited, despite its increasing importance in health care delivery systems. This retrospective study encompasses all EC visits over an eight-year period (n = 825,682) to a large urban county hospital. Only participants with a primary psychiatric diagnosis were examined, and included a total of 53,894 adults, 18-64 years old and 1,478 adults, > or =65 years old.