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Abstract
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AIMS: Assess trends in the number, and mortality rates, of methamphetamine-related death in Australia, 2009-2015; 2. Assess the characteristics, and the cause, manner and circumstances of death; and 3. Assess the blood methamphetamine concentrations and the presence of other drugs in methamphetamine-related death.
DESIGN: Analysis of cases of methamphetamine-related death retrieved from the National Coronial Information System (NCIS). SETTING: Australia. CASES: All cases in which methamphetamine was coded in the NCIS database as a mechanism contributing to death (n=1,649). MEASUREMENTS: Information was collected on cause and manner of death, demographics, location, circumstances of death and toxicology.
FINDINGS: The mean age of cases was 36.9 years, and 78.4% were male. The crude mortality rate was 1.03 per 100,000. The rate increased significantly over time (p<.001), and at 2015 the mortality rate was 1.8 (CI 1.2-2.4) times that of 2009. Deaths were due to accidental drug toxicity (43.2%), natural disease (22.3%), suicide (18.2%), other accident (14.9%) and homicide (1.5%). In 40.8% of cases, death occurred outside the major capital cities. The median blood methamphetamine concentration was 0.17mg/L, and cases in which only methamphetamine was detected had higher concentrations than other cases (0.30 v 0.15 mg/L, p<.001). The median blood methamphetamine concentration varied within a narrow range (0.15-0.20mg/L) across manner of death. In the majority (82.8%) of cases substances other than methamphetamine were detected, most frequently opioids (43.1%) and hypnosedatives (38.0%).
CONCLUSIONS: Methamphetamine death rates doubled in Australia from 2009 to 2015. While toxicity was the most frequent cause, natural disease, suicide and accident comprised more than half of deaths.
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Language: en |