ArticleBMC public health2017
Unintentional drowning: Role of medicinal drugs and alcohol.
Article in BMC public health, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed, 53 citations in OpenAlex.
- Prioritising preventive measures for unintentional sport and recreation-related deaths in Québec, Canada, based on a 14-year review.Injury prevention : journal of the International Society for Child and Adolescent Injury Prevention · 2026Article
- Drowning during methamphetamine intoxication precipitated by improper fluid administration: medico-legal case analysis.Forensic science, medicine, and pathology · 2026Article
- Trends in Unintentional Drowning Mortality Among U.S. Adults Aged ≥25 Years, 1999-2024: A U.S. Surveillance Analysis.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Hospital admissions for non-fatal drowning in Finland, 2002-2023: a nationwide population-based register study.Injury epidemiology · 2025Article
- [Drowning mortality in Catalonia (2019-2022)].Revista espanola de salud publica · 2024Observational
- Hypothesized mechanisms of death in swimming: a systematic review.BMC sports science, medicine & rehabilitation · 2024Article
- Influence of the toxicological status on the diagnosis of fatal drowning.International journal of legal medicine · 2023Article
- Identifying strategic priorities for advancing global drowning prevention: a Delphi method.BMJ global health · 2023Article
- The Combined Effects of Short-Term Exposure to Multiple Meteorological Factors on Unintentional Drowning Mortality: Large Case-Crossover Study.JMIR public health and surveillance · 2023Article
- Sociodemographic inequalities in mortality from drowning in the Baltic countries and Finland in 2000-2015: a register-based study.BMC public health · 2023Article
- Contribution of Drugs to Drowning in Scotland from 1996 to 2020.Current neuropharmacology · 2023Article
- Drowning in submerged cars caused by traffic accidents.Ulusal travma ve acil cerrahi dergisi = Turkish journal of trauma & emergency surgery : TJTES · 2022Article
- The link between medical conditions and fatal drownings in Canada: a 10-year cross-sectional analysis.CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne · 2022Article
- A Smart Multi-Sensor Device to Detect Distress in Swimmers.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Trends in psychotropic-drug-implicated mortality: Psychotropic drugs as a contributing but non-underlying cause of death.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2021Article
- The burden of unintentional drowning: global, regional and national estimates of mortality from the Global Burden of Disease 2017 Study.Injury prevention : journal of the International Society for Child and Adolescent Injury Prevention · 2020Article
- Sudden Unexpected Death and the Mammalian Dive Response: Catastrophic Failure of a Complex Tightly Coupled System.Frontiers in physiology · 2019Article
- Breathalysing and surveying river users in Australia to understand alcohol consumption and attitudes toward drowning risk.BMC public health · 2018Article
- Epidemiology of alcohol-related unintentional drowning: is post-mortem ethanol production a real challenge?Injury epidemiology · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundAlcohol is a well-known risk factor in unintentional drownings. Whereas psychotropic drugs, like alcohol, may cause psychomotor impairment and affect cognition, no detailed studies have focused on their association with drowning. Finland provides extensive post-mortem toxicological data for studies on drowning because of its high medico-legal autopsy rates.
methodsDrowning cases, 2000 through 2009, for which post-mortem toxicological analysis was performed, came from the database of the Toxicological Laboratory, Department of Forensic Medicine, University of Helsinki, using the ICD-10 nature-of-injury code T75.1. The data were narrowed to unintentional drowning, using the ICD-10 external-injury codes V90, V92, and W65-74. Each drowning case had its blood alcohol concentration (BAC) and concentrations of other drugs recorded. Evaluation of the contribution of psychotropic drugs to drowning was based on their blood concentration by means of a 6-grade scale.
resultsAmong victims ≥15 years old, unintentional drownings numbered 1697, of which, 303 (17.9%) were boating-related and 1394 (82.1%) non-boating-related. Among these, 65.0% of boating-related and 61.8% of non-boating-related victims were alcohol-positive (=BAC ≥ 50 mg/dL). The male-to-female ratio in alcohol-positive drownings was 7.3. At least one psychotropic drug appeared in 453 (26.7%) drowning cases, with some victims' bodies showing up to 7 different drugs. Overall 70 different psychotropic drugs were detectable, with 134 (7.9%) cases both alcohol-negative and psychotropic-drug-positive, of these, 59 (3.5%) were graded 4 to 6, indicating a possible to very probable contribution to drowning. Our findings suggest that psychotropic drugs may play a significant role in drowning, in up to 14.5% of cases, independently or in association with alcohol.
conclusionsPsychotropic drugs alone or in association with alcohol may be an overlooked risk factor in drowning, due to their effects on psychomotor function and cognition. Future studies should also address other mechanisms-for instance drug-induced long-QT syndrome-by which drugs may contribute to drowning.
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Registered trials
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