Evidence map›Paper›PMID 37315796›Full record

Observational studyJournal of substance use and addiction treatment2023

Longitudinal changes in co-involved drugs, comorbidities, and demographics of methamphetamine-related deaths in Los Angeles County.

Chelsea L Shover, Joseph R Friedman, Ruby Romero, Russell Buhr, Brian Chu, Amber Tang, Jesus A Medina, Lauren Wisk, Jonathan Lucas, David Goodman-Meza

Open access · hybridAbstract readObservational Study
In one paragraph

Observational study in Journal of substance use and addiction treatment, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
3citing papers in PubMed
1.5field-weighted citation impact, top 17% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

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.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

3 citing papers in PubMed, 7 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
  2. Article
  3. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

10 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.

Chelsea L ShoverDivision of General Internal Medicine and Health Services Research, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA. Electronic address: clshover@mednet.ucla.edu.
Joseph R FriedmanUCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Ruby RomeroDivision of General Internal Medicine and Health Services Research, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Russell BuhrDivision of Pulmonary and Critical Care, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Brian ChuUCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Amber TangUCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Jesus A MedinaUCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Lauren WiskDivision of General Internal Medicine and Health Services Research, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Jonathan LucasDepartment of Medical Examiner-Coroner, Los Angeles County, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
David Goodman-MezaDivision of Infectious Diseases, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
University of California, Los Angeles · USUCLA Health · US

Funding

UCLA-Caltech Medical Scientist Training ProgramT32GM008042 · NIGMS · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES · PI AJIJOLA, OLUJIMI A, DAWSON, DAVID WAYNE · 1985 to 2023
$29.9M
Predicting fatal and non-fatal overdose in Los Angeles County with Rapid Overdose Surveillance Dashboard to target street-based addiction treatment and harm reduction servicesR01DA057630 · NIDA · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES · PI David Goodman, Chelsea Leigh Shover · 2022 to 2026
$2.9M
Using data science to measure the impact of opioid agonist therapy in patients admitted with Staphylococcus aureus bloodstream infectionsK08DA048163 · NIDA · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES · PI GOODMAN, DAVID · 2019 to 2023
$1.0M
Adoption and scale-up of long-acting medications for opioid use disorder by U.S. clinicians.K01DA050771 · NIDA · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES · PI SHOVER, CHELSEA LEIGH · 2021 to 2025
$893k
Delivering contextualizing population data to patients to motivate health care transition preparationK01DK116932 · NIDDK · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES · PI WISK, LAUREN ELISABETH · 2018 to 2023
$647k
NIDA NIH HHS K01 DA050771NIDA NIH HHS K08 DA048163NIDA NIH HHS R01 DA057630NIDDK NIH HHS K01 DK116932NIGMS NIH HHS T32 GM008042
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

introductionWe conducted a population-based observational study of all medical examiner cases in Los Angeles County from January 2012 through June 2021 in which methamphetamine was listed as a cause of or contributing factor to death (n = 6125). We aimed to characterize demographics, comorbidities, and co-involved substances in methamphetamine-related deaths longitudinally in Los Angeles County, California.

methodsWe used detailed death record data to manually classify fatalities by involvement of each organ system, opioids, alcohol, cocaine, other drugs or medications, and external/traumatic causes. Primary outcomes included: the number of methamphetamine-involved deaths, demographics of decedents, percentage of methamphetamine deaths also involving other drugs, and percentage of methamphetamine deaths involving different organ systems. We performed Mann Kendall tests of trends to identify statistically significant longitudinal changes.

resultsDuring the study period, the percentage of methamphetamine-related deaths involving opioids significantly increased from 16 % in 2012 to 54 % in 2021 (p < 0.001). Concurrently, the percentage involving cardiovascular causes significantly decreased from 47 % to 26 % (p < 0.05). Methamphetamine-related deaths in LAC increasingly affected people experiencing homelessness, for whom the percentage tripled from 13 % in 2012 to 35 % in 2021. The share of decedents under 40 years old increased from 33 % to 41 %. The percentage of Black or African American decedents increased over five-fold from 3 % to 17 %.

conclusionsMethamphetamine-related deaths involving opioids more than tripled in Los Angeles County from 2012 to 2021, reflecting the drug supply's shift to illicit fentanyl. More than a quarter involved cardiovascular causes. These findings have implications for treatment and prevention, including scaling up contingency management, distributing naloxone to people who primarily use stimulants, and including cardiovascular care alongside these interventions directly targeted to reduce harms of methamphetamine use.

Indexed as

Drug OverdoseMethamphetamineAdultAnalgesics, OpioidDemographyHumansLos AngelesAnalgesics, OpioidMethamphetamineCardiovascularComorbiditiesHomelessnessMethamphetamineOpioidsOverdosePolysubstance use

Identifiers

PMID37315796
PMCPMC10623547
OpenAlexW4380354422

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.