The investigators analyzed data on England and Wales voluntarily supplied by
Coroners to the National Programme on Substance Abuse Deaths from August 1996
to December 2002. All cases in which at least one analgesic- and cough suppressant-opioid
other than heroin/morphine, methadone, or buprenorphine was identified were
extracted from the database. The hypothesis was that: a) populations of addicts
and non-addicts would show different drug patterns; and b) within the population
of addicts and non-addicts, intentional and non-intentional deaths would show
different patterns of substance consumption.
A total of 2,024 deaths related to selected opioids, either alone or in combination,
were included in the analysis. Typically, non-addicts were older than 45 and
died as a result of intentional poisoning. The majority of addicts were young,
males, and victims of accidental deaths. In about 93% of cases the selected
opioids was combined with another substance (propoxyphene, codeine, and dihydrocodeine).
Co-proxamol, Co-codamol and Co-dydramol were typically prescribed for non-addicts,
while dihydrocodeine was mostly given to addicts. In non-addicts, alcohol was
mostly represented in accidental deaths and antidepressants were in intentional
deaths. In addict's accidental deaths, illicit drugs and hypnotics/sedatives
were typically reported.
This report constituted the largest available collection of analgesic- and
cough suppressant-opioid mortality data in the UK. The researchers acknowledge
that users should be educated about risks associated with polydrug misuse. Schifano
F, Zamparutti G, Zambello F, Oyefeso A, Deluca P, Balestrieri M, Little D, Ghodse
AH. Adapted from Pharmacopsychiatry. 2006 Sep;39(5):185-91.
PMID 16944410
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed
Credit: PubMed, developed by the National Center for Biotechnology Information
(NCBI) at the
National Library of Medicine (NLM).
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