Drug-Related Deaths

There are two standard definitions associated with drug-related mortality: 

Drug-Related Death

This is when the underlying cause of death recorded on the death certificate is drug poisoning, drug abuse or drug dependence.  These deaths can be identified solely through the International Classification of Diseases (ICD).  The current National Statistics definition and the ICD ninth (ICD-09) and ICD tenth (ICD-10) revision codes used to define drug-related deaths are given in Table 1.

The second definition is a subset of the definition above and relates to deaths due to; 

Drug-Misuse Death

These are deaths where the underlying cause is drug poisoning, drug abuse or drug dependence and where any of the substances controlled under the Misuse of Drugs Act (1971) are involved. Further details on this definition for ICD-10 codes are given in Table 2.

 Table 2: ICD10 codes relating to Drug-Misuse

* excluding alcohol, tobacco and volatile substances

 When preparing these statistics the following edits are made:

 1. This definition does not include every death which involved drugs, for example, transport accidents where the driver was under the influence of drugs are excluded. 2. Only deaths related to poisonings by drugs, medicaments and biological substances are included.  Poisonings by other types of chemicals are excluded.

NISRA publish a list of controlled drugs mentioned on death certificates in Northern Ireland.

Data

• 2009-2019 Drug Related and Drug Misuse Deaths
• 2008-2018 Drug Related and Drug Misuse Deaths
• 2007-2017 Drug Related and Drug Misuse Deaths
• 2006-2016 Drug Related and Drug Misuse Deaths
• 2006-2015 Drug Related and Drug Misuse Deaths
• 2004-2014 Drug Related and Drug Misuse Deaths
• 2003-2013 Drug Related and Drug Misuse Deaths
• 2002-2012 Drug Related and Drug Misuse Deaths
• 2001-2011 Drug Related and Drug Misuse Deaths

Information Papers

• Drug-related Deaths in Northern Ireland: Socio-Demographic Analyses
• Drug Related Deaths, Northern Ireland: Information Paper