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Heroin Addiction and Related Clinical Problems: 2002, 04, 1 (pages: 5 - 12)

Mortality among problem drug users in Europe: A project od the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDD)

Bargagli A. M., Sperati A., Davoli M., Perucci C., Vicente J., Hartnoll R., Barry J., Brugal T., Buster M., Ferraz De Oliveira F., Haastrup L., Heinemann A., Kouklinos A., Risser D., Svensonn D., Vuori E.

Summary: The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) is currently co-ordinating a project which aims to enrol and follow up prospective cohorts of problem drug users (PDUs) in several countries, so as to compare overall and cause-specific mortality. Within the project a literature overview of drug user mortality and a comparative analysis of data from already followed-up cohorts were performed. Although the joint analysis provided new knowledge on mortality trends among PDUs in several European countries, care should be taken in comparing data from retrospective cohorts due to the heterogeneity of study populations and their settings and follow-up procedures. The formation of prospective cohorts, in line with a standard methodology, should improve the comparability of results both for overall and cause-specific mortality