Young women are at particular risk of death from illicit drug use, according to preliminary results from a major ongoing study by the University of Eastern Finland’s public health department.
The study confirms that drug users have a higher mortality rate than others of the same age, and that this is higher among male users in general. However it finds that women under the age of 25 form an exception. Their risk of death may be as much as 20 times higher than that of non-drug using women in their age group.
The findings are part of a epidemiologic project being carried out in partnership with Helsinki’s Deaconess Institute, Stockholm’s Karolinska Institutet, the Finnish National Institute for Health and Welfare and others. It is a follow-up study of about 5,000 illegal drug users in the Helsinki region who sought treatment at the Deaconess Institute between 1998 and 2008.
10% mortality rate
By the end of 2010, about 500 drug users, or roughly one in 10, had died.
Professor Jussi Kauhanen points out that the figures relating to young women are exceptional in that this demographic group has a low mortality rate otherwise. The most common killers of young female users were poisoning and overdoses, followed by suicide.
“The poisoning deaths may be a sign that girls’ bodies are not as good at tolerating overdoses that those of boys of the same age,” Kauhanen theorises.
Relatively few violent ends
Among men, drug-related deaths are more evenly distributed among various age groups. The most common causes are heart attacks and infection. Researchers were surprised that violence seemed to play a marginal role in drug users’ deaths.
Of the approximately 500 deaths, only 14 were attributed to violence – far fewer than from traffic accidents, for instance.
Kauhanen points out that all of these 500 deaths were in principle preventable. And since most of them of them were young people, they represent a significant loss to society in many ways.
Subutex and amphetamines most common
Among those seeking help at the Deaconess Institute, buprenorphine has become the most abused drug in the past decade. Marketed for use in heroin treatment, this powerful painkiller is also sold as a street drug. It’s better known under the brand name Subutex.
The second-most common class of drug used is amphetamines.
Another strong prescription painkiller, fentanyl, which is widely abused in neighbouring Estonia, was relatively rarely used among the subjects. However it was blamed for several overdose deaths.
The researchers note that the use of designer drugs has proliferated in general, but that they tend to be used by different groups than those treated at the Deaconess Institute.