THE NUMBER of deaths among drug users due to trauma including hanging more than doubled between 1998 and 2005, while the number of deaths due to medical causes such as heart attack increased more than five-fold in the same period, a new study from the Health Research Board (HRB) finds.
The study, Trends in Deaths among drug users in Ireland from traumatic and medical causes, 1998 to 2005 is published today.
It finds there were 885 non-poisoning deaths – ie not directly caused by drugs – among drug users in the seven-year period. The majority were among men.
The data looked at deaths among people with a history of drug abuse. Of the 746 with a known cause of death, 476 (64 per cent) were due to trauma and 270 (36 per cent) were due to medical causes.
The numbers of non-poisoning deaths among drug-users have gone up considerably – from 63 in 1998 to 167 in 2005. The number of trauma deaths increased from 39 to 83 in the period, and of medical causes from 11 in 1998 to 63 in 2005.
The overall increases are likely to be linked to the increasing prevalence of drug abuse in the period.
Just over half of those due to trauma were among the 20 to 30 age group where the median age was 27, with over half of the deaths by medical cause among those aged 30 to 45, where the median age was 37.
Looking at the 476 deaths due to trauma, the highest number, 174, were due to hanging while 95 were due to road collisions. In almost half of the collisions (47) the deceased was driving.
For trauma deaths, there were positive toxicology reports in 87 per cent of deaths, though drugs may not be implicated in the deaths. Alcohol was present in two-thirds of these deaths and cannabis was the most common illicit drug present.
Of the 270 deaths due to medical causes, cardiac events accounted for a quarter (67) of the total with the annual number of such cases increasing by one third over the seven years.
Almost one-fifth (48) died due to a respiratory infection with the annual number doubling over the period. In medically caused deaths, cocaine users were most likely to die in a cardiac event, such as heart attack or heart failure.
