Towards the definition of a drug-related injury: linking toxicological findings with criminal data

Abstract

Alcohol and other illicit drug use is associated with injury occurrence, particularly violence-related injuries and those resulted from traffic accidents. However, the magnitude of this association might vary according to the type of drug and injury, which supports the need for further epidemiological studies able to establish which substances may increase the risk of injury. The present research proposal has the main goal of obtaining prevalence estimates of alcohol and/or other illicit drug use (amphetamines, cannabis and cocaine) among fatally injured victims necropsied at the Institute of Legal Medicine in the city of Sao Paulo, as well as examine the influence of these substances in the deaths investigated by linking toxicological findings with criminal records regarding the context of the fatal injury event. This will be a prospective cross-sectional study in which blood samples obtained from fatally injured victims during a one-year period will be submitted to toxicological analysis. Moreover, in order to examine the context of the injury event that caused the death of the selected victims, police evaluations of the fatal injury events will also be collected. This is expected to be the first epidemiological study conducted in the Brazilian scenario based on toxicological analysis of blood samples that will contribute to a better understanding of the risk of a drug-related injury taking into account contextual factors involved in the injury event, including the analysis of the quantity of drug used and its impact on the risk of fatal injuries. (AU)