Not All 'Drug-Related Deaths' Are 'Drug-Related', UK

UK estimates of 'drug-related deaths' (DRDs) include mortalities of drug
abusers and non-drug abusers. So these figures may not be the best way of
monitoring the performance of Drug and Alcohol Action Teams, a study
published in the online open access journal Substance Abuse Treatment,
Prevention and Policy suggests.


DRDs are currently used to help evaluate the success of Drug and Alcohol
Action Teams in England and Wales, but the term's exact meaning varies
according to European and national definitions. This means it is hard to
know what sorts of deaths are included, the demographic profile of those who
died, and whether or not individuals were tapped in to services designed to
assist drug abusers.


Dr. Caryl Beynon from Liverpool John Moores University and colleagues
studied details of 70 DRDs that occurred over an 18 month period in
Liverpool - the UK city with the highest recorded number of DRDs in 2004.


They found their sample included drug abusers and non-drug abusers. The
latter tended to be older, had no recent contact with drug-related agencies,
and had different post-mortem drug profiles - they were more likely to have
died from the toxic effects of anti-depressants, anti-psychotics and
analgesics than from taking 'problematic' drugs (e.g. heroin, crack
cocaine/cocaine). Generally the figures also excluded deaths related to drug
misuse, such as those caused by bacterial and viral infections via sharing
drug injecting equipment or contaminated drugs. DRD figures don't capture
the true burden of drug-related mortality as the figures include a wide
range of disparate deaths and exclude others which are clearly related to
the abuse of drugs, the authors conclude.


"When is a drug-related death not a drug-related death? Implications for
current drug-related death policies in the UK and Europe"
Caryl M Beynon, Mark A Bellis, Elaine Church and Sue Neely
Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy
substanceabusepolicy


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