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Topic: Drug Overdoses leading to deaths (Read 301 times) |
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Bob_Johnson
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Drug Overdoses leading to deaths
« on: Apr 1st, 2004, 7:07am » |
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Drug Overdoses Fuel Jump in U.S. Poisoning Deaths
By Paul Simao
ATLANTA (Reuters) Mar 25 - Illicit use of heroin, cocaine and other drugs helped fuel a dramatic rise in the number of accidental and unexplained poisoning deaths in the United States, health researchers said on Thursday.
The fatality rate from poisoning, excluding suicides and murders, rose an average 145% between 1990 and 2001, according to data collected by 11 states and published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Report for March 26.
Narcotics and hallucinogens accounted for 51% of these deaths.
Catherine Sanford, an official with the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services and one of the authors of the study, said the troubling data highlighted a clear and common message.
"If you use drugs for recreation, there is a good chance you will die," said Sanford, who added that misuse of sedatives, pain killers and other legitimately prescribed drugs also contributed to the poisoning fatality trends.
She stressed that this finding did not indicate a need to restrict legally prescribed drugs, especially if they were used to control chronic pain or treat patients in substance abuse clinics.
There were 22,242 poisoning deaths in 2001 in the United States, 63% of which were unintentional. The overall death rate from poisonings - either intentional or unintentional - rose 56% between 1990 and 2001.
Poisonings cost the nation untold billions every year in medical costs and lost productivity. A 1997 study put the cost at about $925 per incident.
Researchers could not explain why Americans between the ages of 45 and 54 posted the biggest increase - a 359% rise - in unintentional poisoning fatalities during the 1990-2001 period.
Equally puzzling was the discovery that the rate of increase among women was almost double that of men in Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Kentucky, Massachusetts, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wisconsin.
Mor Mortal Wkly Rep CDC Surveill Summ 2004;53:233-238.
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| « Last Edit: Apr 1st, 2004, 7:09am by Bob_Johnson » |
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Bob Johnson
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brain_cramps
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Re: Drug Overdoses leading to deaths
« Reply #1 on: Apr 1st, 2004, 7:17am » |
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on Apr 1st, 2004, 7:07am, Bob_Johnson wrote:| "If you use drugs for recreation, there is a good chance you will die," |
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BTW - wouldn't that be a bad chance? 
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| « Last Edit: Apr 1st, 2004, 7:22am by brain_cramps » |
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floridian
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Re: Drug Overdoses leading to deaths
« Reply #2 on: Apr 1st, 2004, 2:40pm » |
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The percentage increase is alarming. It points to trends that could continue to increase. Oxycontin and ecstasy deaths have definitely risen in the past decade, and the human cost has been high. But the number of poisoning deaths is low in terms of the total mortality. 37% of poisionings were intentional (murder or suicide), so the number of 'accidental' poisonings (overdosing) is around 14,000. Here's one 'big picture' from the CDC:
http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/factsheets/death_causes2000.htm
By comparison, here is a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association that estimates that drug related deaths from prescription medicine in the US is around 100,000 people per year. Its somewhat apples and oranges as one is recreational / younger users while the other is 'necessary' and with sick people, but overmedication is a real killer, on par with substance abuse.
Quote: JAMA. 1998 Apr 15;279(15):1200-5.
Incidence of adverse drug reactions in hospitalized patients: a meta-analysis of prospective studies.
Lazarou J, Pomeranz BH, Corey PN. Department of Zoology, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
OBJECTIVE: To estimate the incidence of serious and fatal adverse drug reactions (ADR) in hospital patients. DATA SOURCES: Four electronic databases were searched from 1966 to 1996. STUDY SELECTION: Of 153, we selected 39 prospective studies from US hospitals. DATA EXTRACTION: Data extracted independently by 2 investigators were analyzed by a random-effects model. To obtain the overall incidence of ADRs in hospitalized patients, we combined the incidence of ADRs occurring while in the hospital plus the incidence of ADRs causing admission to hospital. We excluded errors in drug administration, noncompliance, overdose, drug abuse, therapeutic failures, and possible ADRs. Serious ADRs were defined as those that required hospitalization, were permanently disabling, or resulted in death. DATA SYNTHESIS: The overall incidence of serious ADRs was 6.7% (95% confidence interval [CI], 5.2%-8.2%) and of fatal ADRs was 0.32% (95% CI, 0.23%-0.41%) of hospitalized patients. We estimated that in 1994 overall 2216000 (1721000-2711000) hospitalized patients had serious ADRs and 106000 (76000-137000) had fatal ADRs, making these reactions between the fourth and sixth leading cause of death. CONCLUSIONS: The incidence of serious and fatal ADRs in US hospitals was found to be extremely high. While our results must be viewed with circumspection because of heterogeneity among studies and small biases in the samples, these data nevertheless suggest that ADRs represent an important clinical issue. |
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