Citation

Moazen-Zadeh E, Karamouzian M, Kia H, Salway T, Ferlatte O, Knight R. Lancet Psychiatry 2019; 6(9): 725-726.

Affiliation

Department of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada; British Columbia Centre on Substance Use, Vancouver, BC, V6Z 2A9, Canada. Electronic address: bccsu-rk@bccsu.ubc.ca.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/S2215-0366(19)30279-2

PMID

31448752

Abstract

North America is in the midst of an unprecedented overdose crisis. Although data regarding the magnitude of overdose experienced by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people are sparse, a well known interrelated series of individual (eg, suicide and mental illness),1, 2, 3 social (eg, violence, bullying, and rejection from family and friends),1, 3 and structural (eg, poverty, homophobia, transphobia, and stigma)3 factors are known to put this population at disproportionately high risk of substance use-related harms. Despite the availability of several key sources of epidemiological data, substantial gaps in the evidence base regarding LGBTQ people and overdose are challenging the capacity to comprehensively address these inequities. We hereby highlight two key areas that require new scientific and public health investments to more fully measure, report, and address overdose among LGBTQ people.
First, to improve our understanding of the magnitude and distribution of the overdose crisis and the corresponding effects on LGBTQ people, new strategies for data capture are urgently required. Current approaches to large-scale community health surveys around the world, and in North America in particular, often lack high-quality measures to assess differential effects that occur based on sexual and gender identities...

Language: en