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Analysis of psychotropic drug-related deaths in south Osaka
Naoto Tani1,2, Tomoya Ikeda1,2, Tomomi Michiue1,2
1Department of Legal Medicine, Osaka City University Medical School, Abeno, Osaka, Japan, tani.naoto@med.osaka-cu.ac.jp.
Objective:
The aim of this study was to investigate the occurrence of deaths due to psychotropic drugs in south Osaka during a 10-year period and discuss societal factors from a medical viewpoint.
Methods:
Psychotropic drug-related deaths were retrospectively investigated based on the forensic postmortem data of 1,746 decedents in 2005-2014, and we excluded cases in which stimulant drugs were detected. Of these, 133 cases (7.6%) were found to be psychotropic drug-related deaths and were analyzed.
Results:
Psychotropic drug-related deaths occurred in 78 males (59%; age range, 14-95 years) and 55 females (41%; 20-84 years). The direct cause of death was acute drug intoxication in many cases, and of these, acute combined drug intoxication due to the use of multiple drugs accounted for 76% of the deaths. Most of these victims were found to have gastrointestinal and cardiovascular diseases. Cases of psychotropic drug-related deaths had especially poor medical conditions. In addition, tests were positive for blood alcohol in 23% of the cases.
Conclusion:
The descriptive results revealed several factors that may be related to psychotropic drug-related deaths. To prevent drug abuse, several factors were deemed to be important, including improvements in the medical state of an individual, the avoidance of social isolation, and from a medical standpoint, the management of prescription drugs by medical personnel.
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