Older and sicker: Changing mortality of drug users in treatment in the North West of England

Alcohol problems need more attention in patients receiving long-term opioid substitution therapy

“…An Australian study of mortality in OST patients found increased rates of death from cirrhosis, HCV infection and hepatocellular carcinoma as these patients aged. 3 Similar results have been reported in cohorts in England 4 and Sweden. 5 These mortality patterns point to likely causal roles for high prevalent HBV and HCV infections and heavy alcohol use.…”

Treatment for opioid use and outcomes in older adults: a systematic literature review

“…Research on older adults is predominately from the United States and involves alcohol and prescription medications Taylor and Grossberg, 2012). The literature calls for more attention to be given to this topic (Beynon, 2009;Beynon et al, 2010;Crome et al, 2011b; European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, 2010;Fahmy et al, 2012;Gossop, 2008;Institute of Medicine, 2012), and notes insufficient addiction treatment research relating to older people (Bhatia et al, 2015;Crome et al, 2015).…”

Illegal drug use in the age of ageing

“…More specifically, only 22% of deaths among those aged 40 years and over were classified as a drug-related death (that is, from the acute effects of drug use; mainly mental and behavioural disorders and poisoning), with liver diseases, neoplasm, chronic lower respiratory infections, and viral hepatitis accounting for the largest number of deaths from non-acute causes. 5 Drug users aged 40 years and over therefore experience different health challenges as they age, and the reasons for this are numerous. First, longer duration of drug use means a longer window of exposure for certain disease risk factors; for example, longer duration of injecting is associated with an increased risk of contracting hepatitis C. 6 Second, long-term use of drugs, often in association with the use of alcohol and tobacco in this population, 7 is associated with biological and physiological changes which increase the risk of certain conditions, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and other chronic respiratory diseases.…”