BACKGROUND Homeless persons experience excess mortality, but US-based studies on this topic are outdated or lack information about causes of death. To our knowledge, no studies have examined shifts in causes of death for this population over time. METHODS We assessed all-cause and cause-specific mortality rates in a cohort of 28 033 adults 18 years or older who were seen at Boston Health Care...

BACKGROUND To investigate social and economic inequalities in fatal overdose cases related to opioid and cocaine use, recorded in Luxembourg between 1994 and 2011. METHODS Cross-examination of national data from law enforcement and drug use surveillance sources and of forensic evidence in a nested case-control study design. Overdose cases were individually matched with four controls, when ava...

Overdose is the leading cause of premature mortality among heroin users. We examine whether the provision of regulated and quality-controlled heroin to users in specified doses would reduce heroin overdose rates. We also address this in the context of the epidemic of prescription opioid use and deaths seen in recent years in the United States and internationally. We explore the extent to which ...

OPIOID OVERDOSE IS A BURGEONING PUBLIC HEALTH crisis, accounting for at least 16 000 deaths annually in the United States. Opioid overdose occurs across sex, ethnic, age, and geographic strata and involvesbothmedicalandnonmedicalopioiduse.Todate, federal government response has focused primarily on monitoringandsecuringthedrugsupply. ThisViewpointsuggestsvariousstepsnecessarytosupportamorecompr...

OBJECTIVE To assess whether measuring plasma paracetamol concentrations in all patients with drug overdose or collapse (altered consciousness) changes outcome. METHOD A retrospective survey was performed of all patients attending the Accident and Emergency Department at Guy's Hospital, London over a 12 month period who had plasma paracetamol concentrations measured (it is hospital policy that...

Opioid overdose is the leading cause of accidental injury death in the United States, taking the lives of over 16,000 Americans every year. Many of those deaths are preventable through the timely provision of naloxone, a drug that reliably and effectively reverses opioid overdose. However, that drug is often not available where and when it is needed, due in large part to laws that pre-date the ...

Major policy efforts are being aimed at combating the epidemic of opioid addiction and overdose deaths. In response to the epidemic, the medical community and policy makers have attempted to intervene; to date, these varied approaches have done little to reverse the increase in mortality related to opioid overdose. One factor that has complicated efforts to control overdose deaths has been the ...

OBJECTIVE Few studies have focused on the characteristic features of drug overdose in children and adolescents who have attempted suicide in Korea. The present study examined the characteristics of drug overdose in children and adolescents who visited the emergency room following drug ingestion for a suicide attempt. METHODS The medical records of 28 patients who were treated in the emergency...

Heroin overdose deaths are preventable. Overdose prevention in Australia has largely rested on opioid substitution treatment supplemented with outreach services and education for injecting drug users (IDUs) about overdose risks and responses. We believe now is the time to make naloxone hydrochloride (Narcan ®) available to Australian IDUs to help prevent overdose deaths. At the end of 2000 hero...

BACKGROUND There is a lack of international research on suicide by drug overdose as a preventable suicide method. Sex- and age-specific rates of suicide by drug self-poisoning (ICD-10, X60-64) and the distribution of drug types used in 16 European countries were studied, and compared with other self-poisoning methods (X65-69) and intentional self-injury (X70-84). METHODS Data for 2000-04/05 w...