Objective: In the context of mass incarceration and the opioid toxicity crisis in North America, there is a lack of data on the burden of opioid toxicity deaths in Black persons who experience incarceration. We aimed to describe absolute and relative opioid toxicity mortality for Black persons who experienced incarceration in Ontario, Canada between 2015 and 2020.
Methods: We linked data for all persons incarcerated in provincial correctional facilities and all persons who died from opioid toxicity in Ontario between 2015 and 2020, and accessed public data on population sizes. We described the characteristics of Black persons who were incarcerated and died from opioid toxicity, and calculated absolute mortality rates, as well as age-standardized mortality rates compared with all persons in Ontario not incarcerated during this period.
Results: Between 2015 and 2020, 0.9% (n = 137) of 16,177 Black persons who experienced incarceration died from opioid toxicity in custody or post-release, for an opioid toxicity death rate of 0.207 per 100 person years. In the two weeks post-release, the opioid toxicity death rate was 1.34 per 100 person years. Standardized for age and compared with persons not incarcerated, the mortality ratio (SMR) was 17.8 (95%CI 16.4-23.1) for Black persons who experienced incarceration.
Conclusions: We identified a large, inequitable burden of opioid toxicity death for Black persons who experience incarceration in Ontario, Canada. Work is needed to support access to culturally appropriate prevention and treatment in custody and post-release for persons who are Black, and to prevent incarceration and improve determinants of health.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
---|---|
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2023.107778 | DOI Listing |
Basic Clin Pharmacol Toxicol
February 2025
Department of Laboratory Medicine, Institute of Biomedicine, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden.
New psychoactive substances (NPS) are health-hazardous through unpredictable toxicity and effects and largely unknown epidemiology, motivating studies of the latter. Up to 138 NPS were retrospectively identified using liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry data from all 34 183 oral fluid drug samples collected in one Swedish health care region 2019-2020 representing 9468 psychiatric and addiction care patients. In total, 618 findings representing 58 NPS were detected in 481 samples from 201 patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLancet Reg Health Am
January 2025
Department of Family Medicine, McMaster University, Canada.
Background: While Indigenous people are overrepresented in Canada's prisons and in the toxic drug supply crisis, we lack data on the harms related to opioids for Indigenous people with experiences of incarceration. We aimed to examine opioid toxicity deaths in Indigenous peoples who experienced incarceration and to compare opioid toxicity mortality rates with rates for people with no incarceration.
Methods: This retrospective cohort study linked correctional data for all people who were incarcerated in provincial correctional facilities and coronial data for all people who died from opioid toxicity in Ontario, Canada between 2015 and 2020.
BMC Anesthesiol
January 2025
Department of Paediatric Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care, Medical University of Warsaw University Clinical Centre, ul. Żwirki i Wigury 63A, Warsaw, 02-091, Poland.
Background: Lidocaine, a widely used local anaesthetic, also serves as an adjuvant in pain management. However, its use in children is off-label. This study aimed to determine if intravenous lidocaine alleviates the haemodynamic, metabolic, and hormonal responses to intubation and laparoscopic surgery in children.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Toxicol Sci
January 2025
Department of Pharmaceutical and Environmental Sciences, Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Public Health.
In illicit drug markets, the most recently expanding new synthetic opioid subclass is benzimidazoles, also known as nitazenes, which were originally developed as analgesics in the 1950s. The emergence of this classical, potent drug family has attracted extensive research interest in the field of forensic toxicology; however, information on their psychological and physical dependence is very limited. Herein, we evaluated the rewarding effects of four nitazene analogs using a battery of in vivo experiments, with a positive control drug (isotonitazene).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPain Ther
January 2025
Research Management, Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated, 50 Northern Avenue, Boston, MA, 02210, USA.
Introduction: There is a high unmet need for safe and effective non-opioid medicines to treat moderate to severe pain without risk of addiction. Voltage-gated sodium channel 1.8 (Na1.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!