Acute intoxication and trauma severity in emergency department patients: a systematic review
Abstract
Background: Every day, trauma patients under the influence of alcohol and/or psychotropic drugs are treated in Emergency Departments (EDs). Psychoactive substances alter cognition, judgment, and behavior and may influence injury severity, clinical management, and outcomes following trauma. Although numerous observational studies have examined intoxication among trauma patients, only a limited number of reviews have synthesized evidence on its association with injury severity and clinical outcomes.
Objective: To evaluate the association between acute alcohol and/or psychotropic drug intoxication and trauma severity and outcomes, and to determine the prevalence of intoxication among trauma patients presenting to EDs.
Methods: A systematic literature search of MEDLINE and Embase was conducted in January 2024 with a top-up search in November 2025. Prospective cohort studies including patients aged ≥ 15 years presenting to hospital-based EDs were eligible. After screening 2,132 records, 88 articles underwent full-text review, and 18 studies met the inclusion criteria.
Results: Across the included studies, the prevalence of alcohol intoxication ranged from 8.3% to 65.9%, drug intoxication from 14.5% to 22.1%, and combined alcohol and drug intoxication from 6.0% to 38.8%. The average prevalence was 24.7% (range 8.3-65.9%) for alcohol intoxication, 17.3% (range 14.5-22.1%) for drug intoxication and combined alcohol and drug intoxication had an average prevalence of 13.1% (range…
How strong is the evidence?
Evidence Hub reads this as a systematic review, done in people. Its evidence level is 1 of 5 (Highest · pooled evidence). Pooled evidence from several studies sits at the top of the evidence pyramid.
Read the paper
Related studies
- The Matrisome: In Silico Definition and In Vivo Characterization by Proteomics of Normal and Tumor Extracellular Matrices
- The Escherichia coli MG1655 in silico metabolic genotype: Its definition, characteristics, and capabilities
- In silico pharmacology for drug discovery: methods for virtual ligand screening and profiling
- In silico prediction of splice-altering single nucleotide variants in the human genome
- In silico clinical trials: how computer simulation will transform the biomedical industry
- In silico optimization of a guava antimicrobial peptide enables combinatorial exploration for peptide design
Go deeper in Evidence Hub
Evidence Hub adds a study data sheet (design, sample size, evidence level, key numbers), an AI summary and a chat grounded in the paper's text.