Accidental drug overdose deaths continue to rise in Australia

Clare Bruderlin

An annual report by the Pennington Institute, released in August, revealed that the number of drug overdose deaths in Australia has increased by 28 percent in a decade, while the number of accidental drug overdose deaths rose by nearly 40 percent.

The report compiles statistics of drug-induced deaths from 2001 to 2017, examining trends in age-groups, socioeconomic areas and the types and number of drugs used. The report notes that the statistics from 2016 and 2017 are only preliminary and likely to rise, because some coronial inquests from these years have not been finalised.

So far, 2,162 drug-induced deaths are recorded for 2017. Despite the statistics being preliminary, a record 2,177 deaths are currently reported for 2016. The report estimates that both drug-induced deaths and unintentional drug-induced deaths have increased on average by 3.4 percent each year since 2001.

The report focuses primarily on unintentional deaths, which make up the majority (approximately three-quarters) of all drug-induced deaths.

The largest number of deaths occurred in the 40–49 year age-group, followed by the 30–39 age-group and the 50–59 age-group. These are people in the prime of their life. Collectively, accidental drug-induced deaths in these aged groups rose from 540 deaths in 2001, to 1,157 in 2017—a 113.7 percent increase.

The highest growth rate of unintended drug-induced deaths occurred in regional areas where, as the report explains, there is less access to drug treatment and support services, and generally longer delays in emergency services, than in capital cities. From 2011 to 2017, the rate of accidental drug-induced deaths in rural and regional areas increased by 24 percent, compared to 5 percent in capital cities.

The rate of unintentional drug-induced deaths is higher also among indigenous people. Aboriginal Australians were three times as likely to die from unintended drug-induced deaths in 2017, with 19.2 deaths per 100,000 population, compared with 6.2 for non-Aboriginal people.

One of the report’s limitations is that it uses a “Socio-Economic Index for Areas” to gauge the average income of the residential area where a person lived, not their individual income. While drug overdose, addiction and misuse affects both “poor and wealthy neighbourhoods,” the report nonetheless shows that 69 percent of unintentional drug-induced deaths occur in low socioeconomic areas.

The highest rates of accidental drug-induced deaths per 100,000 people were found in Western New South Wales, with a rate of 11.4; Perth South at 9.2, and Nepean-Blue Mountains at 9.1. These are areas of high unemployment, including among former mine workers.

Opioids remain the most commonly identified drug group in unintentional drug-induced deaths. The number of accidental deaths involving opioids increased by 144 percent over 15 years, and more than trebled from 2006 to 2017. The majority of these deaths involve pharmaceutical opioids, which are prescribed to manage pain.

The rise in prescription-opioid deaths may be bound up, in part, with high numbers of work-related injuries. Some 563,600 people experienced a work-related injury or illness in 2017–18, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics data. Chronic joint or muscle conditions accounted for 18 percent (101,340). The occupations most affected were technicians and trade workers. More than half the people who experienced a work-related injury were male.

Males accounted for approximately two-thirds of unintentional drug-induced deaths. During the study period the rate of these deaths increased an alarming 41.7 percent for males, versus 8.5 percent for females.