ISSN: 1304-5040
Dil: Türkçe, ingilizce
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ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLES |
Drug Overdose Deaths In Istanbul Between 1990-2000
Dr. Sadık TOPRAK,a Dr. Esin AKGÜL,b Dr. Uğur GÜNAYDIN,b Dr. Gökhan ERSOY,b
Dr. Gözde ŞİRİN,b Dr. Bülent ŞAMb
aAdli Tıp AD, Gaziosmanpaşa Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi, TOKAT
bAdalet Bakanlığı Adli Tıp Kurumu, İSTANBUL
Objective: The present study explored the prevalence of and basic demographic facts on drug overdose deaths from among the autopsies performed in the Institute of Forensic Medicine, Ministry of Justice, in Istanbul, Turkey.
Material and Methods: In this retrospective study, official records pertaining to the period of 11 years between 1990 and 2000 were reviewed. Death cases (614) which were identified to have resulted from drug overdose by reviewing 26421 autopsies performed between 1990 and 2000 constituted the subject population in this study. Basic and available sociodemographic data were analyzed. Apart from those analyses, annual mortality rates were calculated.
Results: It was seen that majority of overdose deaths occurred in the age 30's (33±9.2 years), and in males (91.2%). The year in which annual mortality rate was highest was 1996 with ten in a million, whereas the lowest rate was obtained in 1990 with 3.6 in a million. While nearly 90% of the cases held Turkish citizenship, ¼ of the remaining cases were of Middle Asian origin. Site of death was home for ¼ cases and hospital for only 7%. In 597 (97.3%) of the cases, deaths resulted from heroin overdose. For the remaining 17 (2.7%) cases, the blamed drugs were barbiturate, benzodiazepine, cocaine and methadone. In one third of the cases, an additional drug used was identified, most predominant one of which was benzodiazepine. It was clear that majority of overdose deaths resulted from heroin use.
Conclusion: There is a long history about production and abuse of opiums in Anatolia. In our study, more than 50 drug overdose deaths were recorded annualy between 1990 and 2000 in İstanbul. For this reason, scientific reaserch on drug abuse should be supported in order to create more effective policies.Keywords: Heroin, overdose, TurkeyTurkiye Klinikleri J Foren Med 2007, 4:95-101
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