Drug related deaths are one of the five key indicators of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA). Recent years have witnessed a marginal downward trend in drug-related deaths. The latest data for the year 2008 reported 244 deaths. Analyzing the latest 2008 data, we notice a slight increase in comparison to 2007 – from 214 to 244 cases. However, it integrates in the stable trend of slight falls and rises we have been observing in recent years.

The data on drug-related deaths is passed to CINN from the Polish Central Statistical Office (GUS).  Each death is recorded by GUS in the mortality register. The register includes information about the place of the fatal overdose, socio-demographic data about the person who overdosed on the drugs and the type of substance which caused the death (according to ICD-10 codes).

The main limitation in collecting information about drug-related deaths is the fact that only the code for the underlying (initial) cause of death is entered into the database and not the codes for secondary and direct causes of death. The use of one code only may result in an underestimation of the number of deaths. The codes were chosen in 2005 which created a national definition of varying drug-related deaths. From the general database, ICD-10 compliant codes were selected which were consistent with the national definition: F11-12, F14-16, F19, X42, X62, Y12, X44, X64, Y14. The Polish definition of mortality is based on ‘selection B’ of EMCDDA protocol (EMCDDA 2002) and on the Polish methodology used before.