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Table 2 Causes of death among 200 patients in opioid agonist treatment in Norway, stratified by gender

From: Mortality and causes of death among patients with opioid use disorder receiving opioid agonist treatment: a national register study

 

Total

Men

Women

N = 200, n (%)

N = 147, n (%)

N = 53, n (%)

Somatic cause of death

90 (45)

69 (47)

21 (40)

 Cancer, excl. Liver cancer

26 (29)

19 (28)

7 (33)

 Cardio-vascular disease

20 (22)

15 (22)

5 (24)

 Pulmonary disease

18 (20)

14 (20)

4 (19)

 Liver disease, incl. Liver cancer

14 (16)

12 (17)

2 (10)

 Other somatic cause of death

12 (13)

9 (13)

3 (14)

Drug-induced cause of deatha

84 (42)

59 (40)

25 (47)

 Methadone

31 (37)

21 (36)

10 (40)

 Heroin

17 (20)

14 (24)

3 (12)

 Other opioids (T402, T404, T406)

15 (18)

10 (17)

5 (20)

 Substance use disorder (F11, F19)

17 (20)

11 (19)

6 (24)

 Non-opioid overdose

4 (5)

3 (5)

1 (4)

Violent cause of death

23 (12)

16 (11)

7 (13)

 Suicide

12 (52)

7 (44)

5 (71)

 Accident

8 (35)

6 (38)

2 (29)

 Homicide

3 (13)

3 (19)

0

Other/unknown cause of deathb

3 (2)

3 (2)

0

  1. Data are expressed as n (%). The distributions of somatic cause of death, drug-induced, violent and unknown cause of death did not differ between men and women (p = 0.610a)
  2. aFive suicides by intentional overdose are included in the group “Drug-induced death”. Only four patients < 31 years died during OAT; all four died of overdose
  3. bOne patient with non-organic psychosis (F29) as the cause of death was included in the group “Other/unknown cause of death”