Cocaine users may present to a hospital emergency room for a variety of reasons, some clinically appropriate (e.g., life-threatening medical consequence of cocaine use) and some less efficient uses of the health care system (e.g., attempt to enter substance abuse treatment). There is little data available on the relationship between emergency room visits by cocaine users and their seeking of and participation in drug abuse treatment. This study collects data by retrospective chart review on the sociodemographic, drug use, and treatment-seeking behavior of an unselected series of 100 cocaine users visiting an urban hospital emergency room. Findings will be compared with similar retrospective chart data from an unselected series of 100 cocaine users who visited the same emergency room two years ago.
