14 DAY TRIAL // According to a new report released by experts in the United Kingdom, it would appear that 40 percent of all deaths associated with drug overdose may have been avoided. The research uncovered that 4 in 10 patients brought to emergency or trauma rooms with symptoms of drug overdose receive sub-standard medical assistance from on-duty personnel. The findings were made by a collaboration of investigators, based at the University of Manchester and the University of Bristol.
The work was conducted after the group analyzed all overdose-related deaths that took place in England throughout the year 2005. Scientists at the UB School of Social and Community Medicine, led by professor David Gunnell, collaborated closely with colleagues at Manchester's Center for Suicide Prevention. “We found that in as many as 39 per cent of cases of self-poisoning fatalities in hospitals, the medical care received may have been in some way sub-optimal,” explains the leader of the research effort, professor Nav Kapur.
Investigators at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh and the University of Oxford, who also contributed to the findings, say that around 47 patients of the 121 who died on account of overdoses did so because they did not benefit from a complete course of emergency treatment. “The commonest reason for poor care was inadequate airway management and in the majority of cases the deficiencies in medical care potentially contributed to the patient's death,” argues Kapur. He says that each individual case was analyzed by a panel of experts, whose members rated the quality of care the subjects receive.
“The causes of poor care in what amounts to over a third of these cases are complex and our research suggests that no single intervention is likely to improve outcomes. Previous work has suggested that guidelines, training, seeking appropriate advice, audit and case reviews may all prove helpful in improving the quality of care for these patients,” Gunnell reveals. The group released a paper detailing the findings, entitled “Self-poisoning suicide deaths in England: could improved medical management contribute to suicide prevention?” It appeared in the latest issue of the esteemed Quarterly Journal of Medicine (QJM).