Sex and age differences in ED patients with mental and behavioral disorders due to psychoactive substance use.

Objectives: The objectives of this study are to describe an emergency department (ED) adult population with the chief complaint of mental and behavioral disorders due to psychoactive substance use and to investigate sex- and age-related differences.

Methods: We analyzed data (2009-2011) from the Regional Observatory of Emergency Medicine ORU-MiP (700000 patients per year) for all patients with a primary diagnosis of mental and behavioral disorders due to psychoactive substance use. Day data were weighted by the number of days in the year and expressed for 100000 inhabitants of the area.