Reduction in drug related suicide in Scotland 1990-1996: an artefactual explanation.

Method Data were extracted from the Annual Reports of the Registrar General for Scotland between 1990 and 1996. The three digit ICD9 codes relevant to drug related deaths are E950 (“Suicide and self inflicted poisoning by solid or liquid substances”), E980 (“Poisoning by solid or liquid substances, undetermined whether accidentally or purposely inflicted”), 304 (“Drug dependence”), and 305 (“Nondependent abuse of drugs”: the majority of these deaths involve alcohol but the category is included for completeness). The drug related accident codes (primarily E850–859, “Accidental poisoning by drugs, medicaments and biologicals”), while not accounting for many deaths, are also included (fig 1).