[Narcotic abuse in Jylland. A study based on narcotics and deaths of addicts examined at the Institute of Forensic Medicine, University of Aarhus during the period 1981-1988. 2. Deaths among addicts].

A total of 229 deaths among drug addicts (194 men and 35 women) examined of the Institute of Forensic Medicine, University of Aarhus during the period 1981-1988 is described. In 178 deaths, the cause of death was poisoning with a drug or illegal narcotic. Alcohol was involved in nearly half of these deaths and was, in addition, the cause of death in 4% of the cases. Heroin or morphine were the causes of death in one third of the cases while detropropoxyphene, methadone and ketobemidone were responsible for approximately half of the deaths. Until 1986, dextropropoxyphene was the dominating drug whereas the number of methadone deaths was considerably greater in the latter half of the period investigated than in the first half. Amphetamine alone was rarely the cause of death but the drug was seen in an increasing number of deaths in recent years. Thus, amphetamine was found in one third of the deaths in 1988.