Source: The West Australian Contact: FAX: +61 8 94823830 Pubdate: Wed, 23, Sep 1998 Page: 10 Author: Wendy Pryer HEALTH STUDY HIGHLIGHTS DRUG ABUSE Aborgines hit worst, speed the main problem. HEALTH problems caused by illicit drug use have reached epidemic proportions in WA, according to WA public health expert Darcy Holman. Professor Holman, from the University of WA's public health department, said amphetamines were the biggest problem. He was speaking at a symposium organised by the WA Lotteries commission to examine the results of the WA research it has funded over - the past six years to the tune of $12 million. Professor Holman was given money to pull together all existing hospital records to analyse the extent of existing health problems in WA and to predict future problems. Four of the 96 projects the UWA public health team is looking at were unveiled yesterday, including new data revealing a threefold increase in the number of people who needed to go to hospital for problems caused by illicit drug use between 1991 and 1995. The problem was bigger in the Aboriginal community, with a seven fold increase since 1991. Professor Holman said rates of first-time hospital admissions for illicit drug users, for problems ranging from overdoses to treatment for dependence, jumped from 18.8 people per 100,000 in 1991 to 162.7 people for every 100,000 in 1995. In the Aboriginal community, the rate sky-rocketed from 9.2 per 100,000 people to 331.1. He said there had been an increase in the use of all illicit drugs but amphetamines, or speed, appeared to be the biggest problem. "We knew we had a problem but we did not know it was so marked," he said. "There really is an urgent need to look into this." Professor Holman was also concerned by figures which revealed a 35 per cent increase since 1980 in the number of patients with mental illnesses who killed themselves within the first three weeks of being discharged from hospital. Though information has been available on the number of mentally ill people treated each year, the new record linkage system allows researchers to track patients. Professor Holman said 343 men and 128 women with mental illnesses killed themselves between 1980 and 1995. He said the biggest increase in suicides by patients discharged from psychiatric hospitals was in the early 1980s and appeared to coincide with the introduction of the policy to get patients out of hospitals and back into the community with support. "We need to took at the adequacy of post-discharge community supports." he said. Other data released yesterday reveal our struggling health system will be faced with big costs in the next eight years because of an expected explosion in the number of people with hip replacements who will need them replaced. Professor Holman said because people were living longer and the prosthesis, or fake hip lasted about only 15 years, the community could expect another 500 people waiting for a second operation in 2006. He said there were big public hospital delays for people needing their first hip replacement but there would soon be many more needing the costly operation again. A hip operation without complications costs about $7000 and an operation to replace the prosthesis about $10,500. - --- Checked-by: Mike Gogulski