Drug-related death and mortality is one of EMCDDA’s five key epidemiological indicators. The indicator consists of two elements: Firstly, ofnational statistics on direct and indirect drug-related deaths; secondly, of mortality among drug users (cohort study results). 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.
The EMCDDA definition of direct 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.
