Relationship between Cannabis Screening and Injured Cases due to Violence or Accident in Emergency Hospital, OSAMA EL-BARRANY, ALAA MEKDAD, INAS IBRAHIM, MONA M. ALI and ASMAA ABD EL-SADEK
Abstract
Introduction: Cannabinoids: Cannabis abuse among younger subjects is associated with poor academic performance and increased school dropout. Many studies have demonstrated that psychosis, violence, aggression, sexual encounters, acci-dents, and crime are closely associated with cannabis abuse [6]. Cannabis use have been associated with conduct disorders, Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and learn-ing disorders. Evidence suggests that cannabis dependence in young people predicts increased risk of using other illicit drugs, under performance in school, and reporting of associated psychotic symptoms.
Aim of the Work: The aim of the study is to explore a relation between violent traumatic injuries and cannabinoids in different age groups of both sexes in Emergency Department of Kasr Al-Ainy Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo Univer-sity from April 2014 to December 2015.
Methods: This study is a cross sectional prospective study carried out on adult patients of both sex presented in the Emergency Department of Kasr Al-Ainy Hospital with different types of violent traumatic injuries in the period from April 2014 to December 2015.
Samples were collected, stored and analyzed in the labora-tory of Forensic Medicine and Clinical Toxicology Department. Urine samples of injured patients were screened for cannabis; using enzyme immune assay procedure (antigen-antibody test), informed consent from all participants was taken before starting the research after complete and extensive description of the study. The Research Ethics Committee of Kasr Al-Ainy Faculty of Medicine approved the design of the study.
Results: The final results in the present study, we found that cannabinoids were found in 51% of total injured patients for 100 patients studied case denoting that they are the very common used substance of abuse.
Conclusion: In the light of the present results there is a very strong correlation between traumatic injury due to violence or accidents and cannabis as final results through drug screening by enzyme immunoassay show that 51% of the total injured patients were positive for cannabinoids.