Drug-related deaths in Scotland in 2010

Table Z Drug-related deaths, on the basis of the ONS 'wide' definition, by how they relate to the Drug Strategy 'baseline' definition, deaths from some causes which may be associated with present or past drug misuse, and volatile substance abuse deaths, 2000 - 2010

Cause of death		2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010
All drug-related deaths (on the "wide" definition)		495	551	566	493	546	480	577	630	737	716	692
of which:
on the basis used for this report's statistics (i.e. the Drug Strategy "baseline" definition, as implemented by NRS)		292	332	382	317	356	336	421	455	574	545	485
deaths within the Drug Strategy "baseline" definition, but excluded from this report's statistics because...¹
(a)… cause of death was a secondary infection or a related complication²		22	9	10	9	6	12	13	10	23	22	33
(b) … controlled substance was present only as part of a compound analgesic or a cold remedy		3	4	6	0	0	1	2	8	10	3	5
other deaths counted as "drug-related" by the "wide" definition - but not on the basis used for this report³		178	206	168	167	184	131	141	157	130	146	169
Deaths from some causes which may be associated with present or past drug misuse⁴
Underlying cause of death, with its ICD10⁵ code(s):
Hepatitis C	(B18.2)	1	2	3	5	5	10	14	12	18	21	19
HIV	(B20-24)	23	33	33	33	16	31	19	21	18	27	21
Total all deaths from the specified causes		24	35	36	38	21	41	33	33	36	48	40
Volatile Substance Abuse deaths
Deaths in Scotland - ICDP figures⁶		9	9	8	6	1	4	9	10	3	..	..

1. Paragraph A3 of Annex A explains why these kinds of deaths are excluded from the standard definition of 'drug-related death' figures produced by NRS
2. including (e.g.) deaths caused by infections that resulted from the use of heroin which was contaminated by, say, anthrax
3. including (e.g.) accidental deaths which were caused by the use of drugs which were not controlled at the time, such as those before 16 April 2010 which resulted from using mephedrone (assuming that no controlled drugs were found in the body)
4. only a proportion of deaths from these causes can be attributed to drug misuse - go to paragraph B8 of Annex B
5. 'ICD10' is the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, Tenth Revision
6. 'ICDP' is the International Centre for Drugs Policy - see paragraph B13 of Annex B for more information about the statistics that it produces. A few deaths per year may be counted both in the 'ICDP' figures and in the standard drug-related death statistics produced by NRS.

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