Opiates, cocaine and alcohol combinations in accidental drug overdose deaths in New York City, 1990-98.

AIMS: Accidental drug overdose contributes substantially to mortality among drug users. Multi-drug use has been documented as a key risk factor in overdose and overdose mortality in several studies. This study investigated the contribution of multiple drug combinations to overdose mortality trends.

DESIGN: We collected data on all overdose deaths in New York City between 1990 and 1998 using records from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME). We standardized yearly overdose death rates by age, sex and race to the 1990 census population for NYC to enable comparability between years relevant to this analysis.

FINDINGS: Opiates, cocaine and alcohol were the three drugs most commonly attributed as the cause of accidental overdose death by the OCME, accounting for 97.6% of all deaths; 57.8% of those deaths were attributed to two or more of these three drugs in combination. Accidental overdose deaths increased in 1990-93 and subsequently declined slightly in 1993-98. Changes in the rate of multi-drug combination deaths accounted for most of the change in overdose death rates, whereas single drug overdose death rates remained relatively stable. Trends in accidental overdose death rates within gender and racial/ethnic strata varied by drug combination suggesting different patterns of multi-drug use among different subpopulations.

CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest that interventions to prevent accidental overdose mortality should address the use of drugs such as heroin, cocaine and alcohol in combination.