Uniform Standards and Case Definitions for Classifying Opioid-Related Deaths: Recommendations by a SAMHSA Consensus Panel

Deaths involving prescription and illicit opioids are on the rise, which is an issue of increasing concern to health care professionals, policymakers, and the public. However, because medical examiners, coroners, and other practitioners do not use uniform standards and case definitions in classifyin...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of addictive diseases 2013-07, Vol.32 (3), p.231-243
Main Authors: Goldberger, Bruce A., Maxwell, Jane Carlisle, Campbell, Anthony, Wilford, Bonnie B.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biological and medical sciences
case definitions
Cause of Death
Classification
Consensus
Consensus Development Conferences, NIH as Topic
Coroners
Death
Death Certificates
death classification
Documentation - standards
Drug addictions
Drug overdose
Drug-related deaths
Examiners
Forensic Toxicology - methods
Forensic Toxicology - standards
Guidelines as Topic
Humans
Incidence
Medical personnel
Medical sciences
Mortality
Opioid-Related Disorders - classification
Opioid-Related Disorders - mortality
Opioids
Poisoning - classification
Poisoning - mortality
Prevalence
Psychotropic drugs
Public health
Review Literature as Topic
Terminology as Topic
Toxicology
Uniforms
United States - epidemiology
United States Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
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Summary:Deaths involving prescription and illicit opioids are on the rise, which is an issue of increasing concern to health care professionals, policymakers, and the public. However, because medical examiners, coroners, and other practitioners do not use uniform standards and case definitions in classifying such drug-related deaths, the incidence and prevalence data are challenging to analyze and difficult to interpret, and thus form a poor basis for crafting effective responses. To address this situation, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration convened a Consensus Panel and charged it with devising uniform standards and case definitions that can assist medical examiners, coroners, public health officials, and others in consistently distinguishing between deaths that were caused by a certain opioids and deaths in which such a drug was detected but was not a major cause of or contributor to the death. The consensus statement presented here incorporates the panel's recommendations in four key areas.
ISSN:1055-0887
1545-0848
DOI:10.1080/10550887.2013.824334