Vol. 512 No. 6
268 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Health and Children if his attention has been drawn to a new study carried out in Dublin by a doctor (details supplied) on illegal drug users where he found that mortality among drug users due to overdose is 40%; and the steps, if any, he will take to deal with this problem. [27036/99]
I understand that the study referred to by the Deputy was a small study of 24 drug users carried out in one general practice. The preliminary findings of the study were presented at the Irish College of General Practitioners' scientific meeting held in November. Of the 24 patients, 23 had witnessed an overdose and ten had been the victim of overdose themselves. Twenty-two of the 24 drug users knew a victim of a fatal overdose and four of the 24 had been present at some stage in their lives at a fatal overdose.
The study was reported in a medical newspaper recently under the heading "Study reveals mortality among heroin users due to overdose is 40 per cent". However, this statement is not accurate as the ten drug users identified in the study as being a victim of overdose were not victims of a fatal overdose.
There is no doubt that overdoses among people addicted to opiates do occur. The nature of drug misuse often leads to drug misusers abusing more than one drug at any one time and this can, unfortunately, result in fatal consequences.
Currently the cause of death among drug misusers is being examined by the Eastern Health Board through the examination of coroners' records and by linking mortality of drug misusers with cause of death over a four year period.
While these studies are being carried out, the Eastern Health Board drug services and Dublin casualty departments are looking at methods of providing more rapid information in relation to drug overdoses.
