Notes on American Medical History

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Abstract
From 1918 to 1920, the police department of New Haven, Connecticut, operated a maintenance clinic for morphine addicts. The clinic registered 91 patrons by September 1920, when the facility was closed because of a change in federal narcotics-regulation policies. Death certificates recovered for 40 of the 91 registrants (44 per cent) show that the patrons' mean age of death was 55.9 years. Although this age is 13 years younger than the mean age of death of the general population, it is comparable to the death rates for lower socioeconomic groups. The causes of death of the 40 patrons were rarely related to drugs; however, like nonaddicted persons in lower socioeconomic groups, the patrons faced higher risks of alcoholism, infectious diseases, suicide, and accidents. Thus, although many in the group appear to have freed themselves from drug addiction, they continued to face other hazards predisposing them to premature mortality. (N Engl J Med. 1981; 304:1071–7.)

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