Fatal and Non-Fatal Overdose among Opiate Users in South Wales

A study published in the International Journal of Drug Policy, Fatal and Non-Fatal Overdose among Opiate Users in South Wales: A Qualitative Study of Peer Responses, explores the behaviour of witnesses to opiate overdoses. 

The research was conducted in South Wales, United Kingdom and comprised of semi-structured interviews recruited from drug services and two Welsh prisons. Those who had witnessed an overdose recently or had themselves overdosed and those who were currently or had been an opiate user were eligible to take part in the study. 

With a sample group of 55 the research team explored the factors which might enable or prevent witnesses of an opiate overdose to intervene, including the social setting of injecting drug use, peer group drug use norms and ability to identify an overdose. The laws governing the possession of drugs were also found to contribute to a failure to respond to an overdose. 

The researchers suggest that the results of the surveys will be useful to inform overdose prevention programmes and training within communities.