BACKGROUND Opioid overdose in Russia is a problem that has grown more severe as heroin abuse expanded over the past decade, yet few studies have explored it in detail. In order to gain a clearer understanding of the situation, 60 drug users, both in and out of drug treatment in St. Petersburg, were interviewed concerning their overdose experience and knowledge about overdose recognition and pre...

OBJECTIVES To quantify the association of HIV infection with overdose mortality and explore the potential mechanisms. DESIGN A prospective cohort study. METHODS A total of 1927 actively injecting drug users who were HIV seronegative at baseline, of whom 308 later HIV seroconverted, were followed semi-annually for death from 1988 to 2001. Survival analyses using marginal structural and stand...

The relation between illicit drug dependence and the likelihood of drug overdose is unclear. We recruited 1,066 habitual drug users for this analysis through street-based outreach in New York City. In this sample, 99.3% of respondents used heroin in the past year and 87.1% of respondents used cocaine; 819 (77.5%) heroin users and 735 (79.2%) cocaine users were severely dependent on either drug ...

BACKGROUND Opioid overdose is a leading cause of death among injection drug users. Over half of injection drug users report at least one nonfatal overdose during their lifetime. Death from opioid overdose rarely occurs instantaneously, but rather over the course of one to three hours, allowing ample time for providing life-saving measures. In response to the prevalence of overdoses in the U.S.,...

There is an association between intravenous drug use and increased risk of death due to overdose. This article reports on the evaluation of a health promotion programme to educate drug users on preventing an overdose and how to deal with an overdose if it occurs.

BACKGROUND Heroin overdose is responsible for significant mortality. It has not previously been highlighted as an important prevention or care issue for general practitioners (GPs) involved in the management of drug misuse. AIMS To examine the prevalence and experience of heroin overdose in a population of drug users attending a general practice. METHOD A questionnaire-based interview of dr...

OBJECTIVES Drug overdose is the second leading cause of accidental deaths among U.S. adults aged 15-64 years. Emergency physicians have a unique opportunity to provide overdose prevention interventions, because habitual drug users are in frequent need of medical care. The authors evaluated associations between individual-level risk factors and experiencing an overdose in the past six months to ...

PURPOSE To determine the role of opioids in drug overdose deaths in Allen County, Indiana between January 1, 2008, and December 31, 2015. METHODS File review of 418 overdose deaths was performed using Indiana State Department of Health death certificates available through the Allen County Coroner's Office. Data from autopsy and toxicology reports and coroner-requested prescribing data from In...

Accidental drug overdose is a substantial cause of mortality for drug users. Neighborhood-level factors, such as income distribution, may be important determinants of overdose death independent of individual-level factors. We used data from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner to identify all cases of accidental deaths in New York City (NYC) in 1996 and individual-level covariates. We used ...