Drug-related death and mortality

 

 

 

Drug-related death and mortality is one of EMCDDA's five key epidemiological indicators. The indicator consists of two elements: 

  • national population statistics on drug-related deaths;
  • and mortality among drug users.

 

The EMCDDA definition of drug-related deaths refers to those deaths that are caused directly by the consumption of drugs of abuse. Those deaths occur generally shortly after the consumption of the substance(s).

Indirect drug related deaths are natural (e.g. death due to disease developed as a result of long term drug use) or violent death (e.g. traffic accidents) cases relating to drug use.

Cohort studies concerning the mortality of drug users have not been conducted in Hungary so far.

Cooperating with the Hungarian professionals, our aim is to set up a reliable system of data collection that enables us to provide the required quality of data to EMCDDA.