© 1973 Oxford University Press
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Deaths from Medicaments in Relation to Epidemic Drug Addiction
1Professor of Epidemiology and Medical Statistics, Department of Community Medicine, University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U. S. A.
2Assistant Professor in Community Medicine
3Lecturer in Community Medicine Department of Community Medicine, University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U. S. A.
Present address: Social Medicinsk Institut, Aarhus Universitet, Vesterbro torv 1-3b, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark
Requests for reprints may be addressed to Prof. Ipsen.
The drug epidemic in United States continues without extensive and accurate data on morbidity and mortality. This report attempts to search the various categories in the official mortality statistics for indications of the magnitude and trend of medicamental deaths both in suicidal and accidental deaths.
A careful scrutiny of specific ICD causes is necessary to sift out pertinent data that usually are diluted or hidden in published reports.
The data for 19501967 from United States are compared to data from 19611970 in Pennsylvania. A re-sorting of death certificate information is necessary to demonstrate age, race, and geographic distributions. There is a 10-fold rise in certain medicamental deaths in the last decade. Reports from the Medical Examiner of Philadelphia confirm locally the findings for the State.
A centralized nationwide reporting system of medicamental deaths is suggested for rapid monitoring of the contemporary epidemic.
Received 6 February 1973
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