Overdoses are a preventable health hazard associated with heroin use.
In the first study of its kind, we examined the records on nonfatal ov
erdoses of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Ambulance Service fr
om August 1990 to July 1993. There was a dramatic increase in the numb
er of overdoses in the second half of 1992 and the first half of 1993,
but thee reasons for the increase are not clear. Most overdoses occur
red in men aged under 30, indoors, and many cases were taken to hospit
al. Often there was no information on why the overdose occurred; when
information was available, about half the cases were attributed to tak
ing heroin in combination with other drugs. Suggestions for improving
the quality of the data collected are made. These include more systema
tic recording by ambulance officers of the drug involved in the overdo
se and whether the drug was used alone or in combination with others,
and linkage of ambulance service records with survey data and informat
ion from analysis of heroin purity.