ArticleDrug and alcohol review2025
Characteristics of Drug-Related Deaths Among Individuals Engaged in Sex Work in the United Kingdom, 1997-2023.
Article in Drug and alcohol review, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
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.
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.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Characteristics of Drug-Related Deaths Among Individuals Engaged in Sex Work in the United Kingdom, 1997-2023.Drug and alcohol review · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
introductionIndividuals engaged in sex work are an understudied population recognised to be at differential risk of experiencing drug-related harms. We aimed to determine the case characteristics, circumstances of death and type of implicated drugs among sex workers dying due to drug-related causes.
methodsRetrospective cohort study in the United Kingdom using coronial records from the National Programme on Substance Use Mortality, 1997-2023. Information was available on decedent sociodemographics, characteristics of death and implicated drugs.
resultsNineteen decedents were reported to be sex workers at the time of their death. Overall, decedents were predominantly female (n = 17, 90%) with a mean age of 36.4 years (SD 8.0; range 26-58). Poisoning was the only disease or condition that was certified as a direct, antecedent or contributory cause of death. The mean number of drugs detected at post-mortem was 5.4 (SD 2.5; range 1-10) with multiple drug toxicity implicated in the majority of cases (n = 18, 95%). The most commonly implicated drug groups were opioids (n = 17, 90%) and benzodiazepines (n = 9, 47%). All decedents had a history of substance dependence (n = 19, 100%), with almost a third injecting (n = 6, 32%). DISCUSSION AND
conclusionsThere have been low but consistent numbers of drug-related deaths each year where individuals were reported to be sex workers, results likely representing significantly conservative estimates. Polysubstance, opioid and benzodiazepine use are overrepresented within a largely female population with a significant burden of substance dependence. Non-judgmental facilitation of access to evidence-based addiction treatment, in particular for opioid use disorder, should be a priority.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.