title: Acute drug-related mortality of people recently released from prisons.
abstract: The rate of acute drug-related mortality, or overdose deaths, among prisoners in the immediate post-release period is unacceptably high. Such incidents result from many factors, including decreased tolerance after a period of relative abstinence during imprisonment and the concurrent use of multiple drugs which, with every additional illicit drug consumed in combination with opioids, nearly doubles the risk of death from opioids. Other important factors are the lack of pre-release counselling, post-release follow-up and failure to identify those at risk. Substance dependence is a chronic disorder with high relapse rates and often requires long-term continuous treatment. The deaths are preventable and a number of interventions including opioid substitution treatment reduces the risk of overdose among opioid users after release.
authors.affiliation: World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe, Copenhagen, Denmark. lmo@euro.who.int
authors.forename: L F
authors.initials: LF
authors.lastname: Møller
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Matic
authors.forename: B J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: van den Bergh
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Moloney
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Hayton
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gatherer
mesh_terms: D062787:Drug Overdose / Q000401:mortality* / Q000517:prevention & control; D006801:Humans; D013287:Illicit Drugs / Q000009:adverse effects; D011329:Prisoners; D014944:World Health Organization
chemical_list: D013287:Illicit Drugs