People who have chronic conditions are at a greater risk of dying from stimulant drug poisoning than from opioid drug poisoning, according to new research.
The B.C. Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC) announced on Dec. 6 that the new research highlights the need for health-care professionals to talk with patients who have these chronic conditions about substance use.
BioMed Central Medicine published the study, which included people with lived experience, experts and physicians.
B.C.'s chief coroner said the proportion of illicit drug poisoning deaths where a stimulant has been deemed relevant has increased in recent years.
"In 2023, it accounted for 76 per cent of such deaths,” says Dr. Jatinder Baldwin.
People who had been diagnosed with heart failure or ischemic heart disease were about two times more likely to have a stimulant toxicity death compared to an opioid toxicity death, according to the study.
A stimulant drug, according to the BCCDC, is a drug such as methamphetamine, cocaine or other amphetamine-type substances. These substances are sometimes referred to as crack, coke, meth or side. A person using stimulants may be more alert, energetic or awake.
Dr. Heather Palis, lead author of the study, said there is an opportunity for services and support to be offered to people at risk of overdose across the health system.
“We found that about one in three people who died of drug toxicity were in contact with health professionals for chronic disease care in the month before they died,” says Palis.
Between January 2015 and December 2019, the BC Coroners Service recorded 3,788 people who died from drug toxicity.
The study worked to determine who died from stimulant toxicity, opioid toxicity or both.
Dr. Frank Scheuermeyer is an emergency room physician at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver and program head for emergency medicine at the Centre for Advancing Health Outcomes.
"People using stimulants appear to have more cardiovascular disease, and health-care providers should be screening them for such conditions,” says Scheuermeyer in a statement.
During the study period, 60 per cent of people who died of illicit drug poisoning had both opioids and stimulants deemed relevant to their death and 11 per cent had stimulants deemed relevant to their death without opioids.
Beth Haywood is a member of the provincial peer advisory group of people with lived experience of substance use and says work needs to be done to destigmatize the conversation so people can get the services they need.
“People who use drugs often don’t feel safe disclosing their substance use to health-care providers,” says Haywood. "Primary care is a place where this can start.”
More research into the association between chronic disease and stimulant use is welcomed by the co-authors.
As of Sept. 2024, a total of 15,602 people have died from unregulated drug poisoning in B.C. since 2016. Illicit drug toxicity is the leading cause of death in British Columbia for people aged 10 to 59.
