Drug “Overdoses” among U.S. Soldiers in Europe, 1978–1979. I. Demographics and Toxicology

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Abstract
The files of the Casualty Branch of the Military Personnel Center, Europe, 7th Medical Command and of the U.S. Army''s 10th Medical Lab were used to examine the epidemiology of overdose deaths of U.S. Army soldiers in Europe during 1978 and 1979. A total of 91 cases were identified; i.e., death was the direct result of injection, inhalation or ingestion of an intoxicant, legal or illegal. Not included were deaths caused by trauma or drowning while intoxicated, deaths from disease secondary to chronic drug or alcohol abuse, and deaths due to chemicals not widely viewed as intoxicants. The monthly distribution of cases showed a spring peak similar to that reported by several studies of U.S. civilian drug deaths. No such similarity was apparent in terms of victim characteristics and circumstances, with soldier victims being nearly always male, equally often white as black, 20-24 yr old, very rarely suicides and nearly always using heroin and/or alcohol. Control data from circumscribed subgroups of nonvictim European soldiers, however, show that victims did not differ markedly from the junior enlisted population from which they came, as least on the variables generally available in personnel and medical records.

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