Difficulties in recording mortality resulting from drug abuse.

It is considered, according to statements from different sources, that data on the number of deaths in the population of a certain country or region are accurate and correct, but determining causes of death is, for different reasons, often incorrect. There is, therefore,a justified doubt that there are more inaccurately registered drug abuse-related deaths in state registries. Hence, this paper tends to show the most frequent difficulties encountered when recording mortality resulting from drug abuse.

Influence of war on quantitative and qualitative changes in drug-induced mortality in Split-Dalmatia County, Croatia.

Aim: To study drug-induced mortality and characteristics of overdose deaths in the war (1991-1995), pre-war (1986-1990), and post-war period (1996-2000) in Split-Dalmatia County.

Methods: We retrospectively searched through Databases of the Department of Forensic Medicine, University Hospital Split, the national register of death records, the archives of the Split-Dalmatia County Police, and the Register of Treated Drug Addicts of the Croatian National Institute of Public Health, covering the period from 1986 to 2000, according to drug poisoning codes IX and X of the International Classification of Diseases. The indicators were statistically analyzed.