{"id":1388,"date":"2025-06-30T10:27:24","date_gmt":"2025-06-30T09:27:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medicine.st-andrews.ac.uk\/digitas\/?p=1388"},"modified":"2025-06-30T16:02:00","modified_gmt":"2025-06-30T15:02:00","slug":"clinical-information-recording-in-drug-deaths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medicine.st-andrews.ac.uk\/digitas\/2025\/06\/30\/clinical-information-recording-in-drug-deaths\/","title":{"rendered":"Clinical information recording in drug deaths"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Recording of clinical information in a Scotland-wide drug deaths study<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The aim of this study was to analyse the nature and extent of data extracted from case files of deceased individuals in contact with services 6 months prior to drug deaths in Scotland during 2003.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Methods<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A cross-sectional descriptive analysis of 317 case notes of 237 individuals who had drug-related deaths was undertaken, using a data linkage process. All contacts made with services in the 6 months prior to death were identified. Information on clinical and social circumstances obtained from social care, specialist drug treatment, mental health, non-statutory services, the Scottish Prison Service and Criminal Records Office was collated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Results<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">More than 70% (n = 237) were seen 6 months prior to their drug death. Sociodemographic details were reported much more frequently than medical problems, for example, ethnicity (49%), living accommodation (66%), education and income (52%) and dependent children (73%). Medical and psychiatric history was recorded in only 12%, blood-borne viral status in 17% and life events in 26%. This paucity of information was a feature of treatment plans and progress recorded. The 237 drug deaths were not a population unknown to services. Highly relevant data were missing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Conclusion<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Improved training to promote in-depth recording and effective monitoring may result in better understanding and reduction of drug deaths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Output<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Baldacchino A<\/strong>, Crome I, Zador D, et al. Recording of clinical information in a Scotland-wide drug deaths study.\u00a0<em>Journal of Psychopharmacology<\/em>. 2009;24(9):1289-1298. doi:<a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/0269881109103797\">10.1177\/0269881109103797<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This study examined case files of individuals who died drug-related deaths in Scotland in 2003, finding over 70% had contact with services in the prior six months. Despite this, key clinical data\u2014such as psychiatric history and blood-borne virus status\u2014were often missing. Improved recording and monitoring could aid prevention efforts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5884,"featured_media":1389,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-data_science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicine.st-andrews.ac.uk\/digitas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicine.st-andrews.ac.uk\/digitas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicine.st-andrews.ac.uk\/digitas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicine.st-andrews.ac.uk\/digitas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5884"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicine.st-andrews.ac.uk\/digitas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/medicine.st-andrews.ac.uk\/digitas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1388\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicine.st-andrews.ac.uk\/digitas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicine.st-andrews.ac.uk\/digitas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicine.st-andrews.ac.uk\/digitas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicine.st-andrews.ac.uk\/digitas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}