Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39513408›Full record

ArticleAddiction (Abingdon, England)2025

Differences in heroin overdose risk associated with the unregulated drug market: Insights from a supervised injecting facility in Melbourne, Australia.

Nathan C Stam, John Furler, Sarah Hiley, Jennifer L Schumann

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Addiction (Abingdon, England), 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

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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.

2 · The registry

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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

2 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
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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

4 authors.

Nathan C StamMedically Supervised Injecting Room, North Richmond Community Health, Richmond, Victoria, Australia.ORCID 0000-0002-0176-1237
John FurlerMedically Supervised Injecting Room, North Richmond Community Health, Richmond, Victoria, Australia.ORCID 0000-0003-0339-5848
Sarah HileyMedically Supervised Injecting Room, North Richmond Community Health, Richmond, Victoria, Australia.
Jennifer L SchumannMonash Addiction Research Centre, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.ORCID 0000-0002-8870-6272

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

aimsTo determine the contribution that variation in the unregulated drug market has on the risk of heroin overdose across individuals with different levels of personal overdose risk.

designA retrospective cohort study of heroin injecting episodes and overdose cases were examined over a 12-month period between 30 June 2022 and 30 June 2023.

settingThe Medically Supervised Injecting Room in Melbourne, Australia. CASES: 1474 witnessed heroin overdose cases were examined amongst a cohort of 337 individuals who were predominantly male (n = 276, 81.7%) with a median age of 43.5 years (interquartile range 37.25-49.00 years, range 20-75 years). MEASUREMENTS: The daily overdose rate was used to differentiate High and Low daily overdose risk categories. The number of overdose events that an individual experienced during the study period was used to differentiate people into Standard, Moderate and High personal overdose risk categories. Each overdose case was differentiated by the personal overdose risk of the individual who experienced the overdose, as well as the overdose risk of the day that overdose occurred. A stratified overdose risk profile was then derived across the nine different daily overdose risk and personal overdose risk categories.

findingsThe rate of overdose approximately doubled on High overdose risk days compared with Standard overdose risk days, increasing by a factor of 2.11, 2.41 and 2.03 times for individuals in the Standard, Moderate and High personal overdose risk groups. Conversely, the rate of overdose was also substantially reduced on Low overdose risk days to a factor of 0.17, 0.28 and 0.20, respectively.

conclusionAmong heroin users in Melbourne, Australia, there is an approximately 10-times difference in the risk of overdose on some days compared with others, which appears to be attributable to the effects of the unregulated drug market and not the effects of variation in personal overdose risk of individuals.

Indexed as

Drug OverdoseHeroinHeroin DependenceSubstance Abuse, IntravenousAdultAgedAustraliaCohort StudiesFemaleHumansMaleMiddle AgedNeedle-Exchange ProgramsRetrospective StudiesRisk FactorsVictoriaHeroindrug checkingheroin overdoseoverdose riskpublic healthsupervised injecting facilitiesunregulated drug market

Identifiers

PMID39513408
PMCPMC11707310

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Registered trials

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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.