C5 Drug-related deaths in Scotland
This section is based on the General Register Office for
Scotland’s Short Paper published on the 30th August 2007.
This paper and those for previous years can be found at www.gro-scotland.gov.uk
In order to be consistent with the other data sources in this
publication, ISD have highlighted 5-year trends in drug related
deaths (2002 to 2006) within the following key points. The original
GROS paper focused on trends from 1996. |
Key Points 2006
Overview
- In 2006 there were 421 drug-related deaths (Table C5.1).
- Most deaths (83%) were to persons aged under 45 years old, with
16% aged under 25 years old (Table C5.2).
- Men accounted for 79% of the 421 drug-related deaths in 2006
(Table C5.4).
- The majority of deaths (67%) were known or suspected drug
abusers (280 people), with percentages broadly similar for males
(67%) and females (63%) (Table C5.4).
- Of the 69 cases aged under 25 years, 68% (47 cases) were known,
or suspected to be, drug-dependent. 20% were accidental poisonings,
10% were undetermined and 1% were intentional self-poisonings
(Table C5.4).
Five Year Trends – 2002 to 2006
Care should be taken when assessing the trends shown in
Tables C5.1 and C5.2 because of the relatively small numbers
involved, particularly for some health board areas, and the
possibility that more complete information has been reported in
recent years.
- In 2006 there were 85 (25%) more deaths than in 2005
(increasing from 336 to 421) and 39 more than in 2002 (Table
C5.1).
- The number of deaths involving known or suspected drug abusers
was the same in 2006 as in 2002 (280 each year); the intervening
years saw lower numbers (2003, 216; 2004, 232; 2005, 204). The
number of deaths attributed to accidental poisoning has increased
since 2002, from 17 to 51 in 2006 (Table C5.1).
- Between 2002 and 2006 there were decreases in the numbers of
drug-related deaths in the younger age groups (under 30 years old)
but increases in older age groups (over 30 years old). The total
number of deaths in those aged under 30 years old was 191 in 2002
falling to 137 in 2006, whilst the deaths in those aged over 30
years old rose from 191 in 2002 to 284 in 2006 (Table C5.2).
Drugs recorded
Tables C5.5 and C5.6 give information on the involvement of
selected drugs, either alone or, more commonly, in combination with
other drugs. Since the tables record individual mentions of
particular drugs they involve double counting of some deaths. It is
believed that for the overwhelming majority of cases where morphine
has been identified in post-mortem toxicological tests its presence
is a result of heroin use. The tables therefore show a combined
figure for ‘heroin/morphine’. In 2006 the drugs listed
were known to be involved in 364 (86%) of the 421
deaths1.
- In 2006 heroin/morphine was recorded in 260 (62%) of the
deaths; alcohol was recorded in 131 (31%); methadone was recorded
in 97 (23%) of the deaths and diazepam was recorded in 78 (19%) of
the deaths (Table C5.5).
- Cocaine was found relatively infrequently in drug related
deaths and was recorded in a similar number of deaths in 2006 (33
deaths) as 2002 (31 deaths). However, is should be noted that 2005
saw higher numbers of deaths where cocaine was recorded (44 deaths)
(Table C5.5).
- The number of deaths where heroin or morphine is recorded have
fluctuated over the last five years. However, the numbers in 2006
(260) were relatively close to those found in 2002 (248) (Table
C5.5).
- Over four of the last five years the number of deaths recording
methadone decreased (from 98 in 2002 to 72 in 2005). However, 2006
saw deaths where methadone was recorded rising to 97. Deaths
involving diazepam show the most dramatic reduction between 2002
(214) and 2006 (78) (Table C5.5).
Geographical Profile
- Of the 421 deaths in 2006, 162 occurred in the NHS Greater
Glasgow and Clyde board area. The next highest totals were found in
NHS Grampian (47), NHS Lothian (46), NHS Lanarkshire (40), and NHS
Tayside (35) (Table C5.2).
- The areas that showed the largest increases in drug-related
deaths between 2005 and 2006 were NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde
(from 111 to 162), NHS Grampian (from 23 to 47) and NHS Forth
Valley (from 14 to 24) and NHS Ayrshire and Arran (from 15 to 25).
NHS Lothian showed the largest decrease between 2005 and 2006 (from
57 to 46) (Table C5.2).
- There were some geographical differences in the reported
involvement of certain drugs. For most NHS board areas,
heroin/morphine was involved in a majority of the deaths (97 out of
162 in Greater Glasgow and Clyde, 42 out of 47 in Grampian, and 27
out of 35 in Tayside. However, a much lower proportion was recorded
in Lothian (12 out of 46). Greater Glasgow and Clyde showed a
relatively high proportion involving methadone (58 out of 162).
This contrasts with the lower proportions in Grampian (4 out of 47)
and Lothian (9 out of 46) (Tables C5.3 and C5.6).
Background information
The GROS report from which this section is taken gives
information about drug-related deaths in Scotland over the period
1996 – 2006 using the definition for baseline figures
introduced in 2001. This definition was agreed by a working party
set up following the publication, by the Advisory Council on the
Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), of a report2 on ‘Reducing
drug related deaths’. The Office for National Statistics has
also prepared data on drug-related deaths in England and Wales
using this new definition. The paragraph below gives some
background on the collection of information on drug-related deaths
in Scotland. Annex B5.1 gives background on the definition of
drug-related deaths used.
Drug-related deaths are identified using details from death
registrations supplemented by information from a specially designed
questionnaire, completed by forensic pathologists, for all deaths
involving drugs or persons known or suspected to be drug-dependent.
Additionally, GROS follows up all cases of deaths of people where
the information on the death certificate is vague or suggests that
there might be a background of drug abuse. A copy of the
questionnaire currently used is given in Annex C5.2. A
paper3 published in June 1995 by GROS described this
enhancement to the data collection system.
References
1‚Drug-related deaths in Scotland 2006. GROS,
2007.
2‚The Advisory Council on the Misuse of
Drugs. Reducing drug related deaths. Home Office, 2000.
3‚-Arrundale J and Cole S K. Collection of
information on drug-related deaths by the General Register Office
for Scotland. GROS, 1995.
Further information
Information on GROS statistics is available at HYPERLINK
"http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk" www.gro-scotland.gov.uk.
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