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Unintentional Drug-related Deaths in Cambridgeshire: A Retrospective Observational Study

Background: Drug-related deaths are a growing public health problem in the United Kingdom, overtaking road fatalities and homicides in terms of annual deaths. In this study, we investigated the causes and circumstances of unintentional drug-related deaths occurring in the county of Cambridgeshire, w...

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Autores principales: Khan, Tahir S, Boyle, Adrian, Talbot, Susie
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Cureus 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7039352/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32140318
http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.6750
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author Khan, Tahir S
Boyle, Adrian
Talbot, Susie
author_facet Khan, Tahir S
Boyle, Adrian
Talbot, Susie
author_sort Khan, Tahir S
collection PubMed
description Background: Drug-related deaths are a growing public health problem in the United Kingdom, overtaking road fatalities and homicides in terms of annual deaths. In this study, we investigated the causes and circumstances of unintentional drug-related deaths occurring in the county of Cambridgeshire, with the objective of identifying the prevalence of physical, mental, and social health problems within this cohort. Methods: We collected data on the demographics and mental and physical health of, and drugs contributing to, 30 consecutive unintentional drug-related deaths recorded by the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough County Council Coroners in 2017. A retrospective observational study was used, and data were collected by manual extraction from coroners’ files. Results: Social isolation was identified as a recurring theme amongst the decedents, although homelessness was found in very few cases. Pharmacologically, multiple drug toxicity and opioid toxicity were highly prevalent, whilst prescription opioids were implicated in more cases than heroin. Chronic pain was also highly prevalent amongst the decedents, and a history of mental illness was found to occur in the majority of cases. Discussion: Our findings show that reports from the coronial system provide a rich narrative to understand the causes of drug-related deaths. We have identified that individuals who die from drug-related deaths frequently have multiple adverse physical, mental, and social problems. This implies that any attempt to reduce drug-related deaths requires a multi-faceted and multi-disciplinary approach.
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spelling pubmed-70393522020-03-05 Unintentional Drug-related Deaths in Cambridgeshire: A Retrospective Observational Study Khan, Tahir S Boyle, Adrian Talbot, Susie Cureus Pain Management Background: Drug-related deaths are a growing public health problem in the United Kingdom, overtaking road fatalities and homicides in terms of annual deaths. In this study, we investigated the causes and circumstances of unintentional drug-related deaths occurring in the county of Cambridgeshire, with the objective of identifying the prevalence of physical, mental, and social health problems within this cohort. Methods: We collected data on the demographics and mental and physical health of, and drugs contributing to, 30 consecutive unintentional drug-related deaths recorded by the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough County Council Coroners in 2017. A retrospective observational study was used, and data were collected by manual extraction from coroners’ files. Results: Social isolation was identified as a recurring theme amongst the decedents, although homelessness was found in very few cases. Pharmacologically, multiple drug toxicity and opioid toxicity were highly prevalent, whilst prescription opioids were implicated in more cases than heroin. Chronic pain was also highly prevalent amongst the decedents, and a history of mental illness was found to occur in the majority of cases. Discussion: Our findings show that reports from the coronial system provide a rich narrative to understand the causes of drug-related deaths. We have identified that individuals who die from drug-related deaths frequently have multiple adverse physical, mental, and social problems. This implies that any attempt to reduce drug-related deaths requires a multi-faceted and multi-disciplinary approach. Cureus 2020-01-23 /pmc/articles/PMC7039352/ /pubmed/32140318 http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.6750 Text en Copyright © 2020, Khan et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Pain Management
Khan, Tahir S
Boyle, Adrian
Talbot, Susie
Unintentional Drug-related Deaths in Cambridgeshire: A Retrospective Observational Study
title Unintentional Drug-related Deaths in Cambridgeshire: A Retrospective Observational Study
title_full Unintentional Drug-related Deaths in Cambridgeshire: A Retrospective Observational Study
title_fullStr Unintentional Drug-related Deaths in Cambridgeshire: A Retrospective Observational Study
title_full_unstemmed Unintentional Drug-related Deaths in Cambridgeshire: A Retrospective Observational Study
title_short Unintentional Drug-related Deaths in Cambridgeshire: A Retrospective Observational Study
title_sort unintentional drug-related deaths in cambridgeshire: a retrospective observational study
topic Pain Management
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7039352/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32140318
http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.6750
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