Acta psychiatrica Scandinavica
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Acta Psychiatr Scand · Apr 1995
Overdose deaths in young substance abusers: accidents or hidden suicides?
Of 1969 earlier adolescent psychiatric inpatients, 1792 (91%) were traced after a mean follow-up period of 15 years. Thirty-nine patients, 2.3% of the men and 2.0% of the women had died from drug overdoses. An additional 16 drug- and alcohol-related deaths had occurred. ⋯ We found no significant differences between the overdose cases and their surviving controls. Both groups showed poor impulse control and risk-taking behavior more often than the suicide group. The study lends support to the hypothesis that the majority of overdose deaths in young drug addicts are accidental poisonings and not misclassified suicides.