Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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The Irish National Drug-Related Deaths Index (NDRDI) is an epidemiological database which records cases of death by drug and alcohol poisoning, and deaths among people who use drugs and/or those who are alcohol dependent. The NDRDI is maintained by the Health Research Board (HRB). It is jointly funded by the Department of Health and the Department of Justice.

The NDRDI records data from four sources: the Coroner Service, the Hospital In-Patient Enquiry scheme (HIPE), the Central Treatment List (CTL), and the General Mortality Register (GMR) through the Central Statistics Office (CSO) in order to ensure that the database is complete and accurate. Cases from the different data sources are cross matched on a selection of variables, including name, gender, county of residence, date of birth and date of death. This allows the NDRDI to eliminate duplicates and to maximise the amount of information available on each case recorded on the database.

Poisonings: Deaths directly due to the toxic effect of the consumption of a drug or drugs and/or other substance(s). Other terms used to describe such deaths include overdose, directly drug-related death, and acute drug death. Deaths arising from adverse reactions to prescribed medication taken under medical supervision are not included in the NDRDI.

Non-poisonings: Deaths in individuals with a history of drug dependency or non-dependent abuse of drugs (ascertained from toxicology results and from CTL, medical or coronial records), irrespective of whether the use of the drug was directly implicated in the death. For presentation purposes it is necessary to group these deaths into broad categories.

Detailed information in table format on drugs implicated in drug related deaths can be found at this link: www.hrb.ie/fileadmin/2._Plugin_related_files/Press_releases/2023_press_releases/HRB_Drug_related_deaths_2020_supplementary_tables.pdf

The number of poisoning deaths in 2019 and 2020 by county of where the deceased resided is presented. Please note that county of residence may differ from the county where the incident which lead to the death occurred. Numbers less than 5 are not routinely reported by the NDRDI. Data for 2021 is not yet available.

In 2019 there were 371 poisoning deaths reported (excluding alcohol-only poisonings) and in 2020 there were 409 poisoning deaths reported (excluding alcohol-only poisonings).

Table 1 Poisoning deaths (excluding alcohol only) by the county where deceased resided, NDRDI 2019 to 2020