Changing Patterns in Causes of Death in a Cohort of Injecting Drug Users, 1980-2001

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Abstract
Death rates and causes of death are important as outcome measures of drug use for various reasons. In practical terms, they are hard outcome measures compared with the notoriously difficult-to-assess values of abstinence, remission rates, and quality of life. Deaths can also be counted from national databases derived for other purposes and can, in theory at least, be compared among regions and countries. However, there are various problems using mortality data. Coding systems (International Classification of Diseases [ICD]) have few specific codes relating to drug use, reporting of causes is inconsistent and variable, and most studies probably underestimate effects of drugs on suicide, violence, and early death due to accelerated common degenerative diseases.1,2