OBJECTIVES: Adolescence and young adulthood are an important transitional period during which morbidity and mortality often arise from individual's behaviors such as alcohol and drug use, suicide, and poisonings.  Self-report survey data regarding health behaviors are readily available, however little data from objective sources has been reported and minimal study of health care utilization, particularly hospital utilization, related to these behaviors has been conducted.  This study examines the patterns and characteristics of individuals admitted to the hospital for these conditions. METHODS: The data for this investigation came from the 2007 National Hospital Discharge Survey (NHDS).  Records for all individuals who had an age in the range of 10-24 years and were discharged from the hospital with any recorded diagnosis of alcohol or drug abuse or dependence, suicide, or poisonings were abstracted.  National estimates were calculated utilizing the weighted number of discharges and the U.S. Census Bureau population data for this age group.  Rao-Scott Chi square tests were performed to evaluate differences between groups and all significance tests were two-sided using p<0.05 as the level of statistical significance. RESULTS: National estimates for hospital discharges per 1,000 10-24 year olds are 54.2 for alcohol/drug use, 3.3 for suicide, and 9.8 for poisoning.  Seasonal trends in alcohol/drug and suicide discharges were observed, as were regional differences with more than twice as many alcohol/drug-related discharges in the South.  Over 42% of all care related to these diagnoses is expected to be paid for by public health insurance programs.  Self-pay is also high for these conditions (16.1%). CONCLUSIONS: A significant porition of inpatient hospital care for adolescents and young adults is attributable to alcohol/drug use, suicide, and poisonings.  These data have implications for primary intervention programs and suggest the need for further investigation of the associated health care costs related to these conditions.