Table 1.
Summary statistics of patients presenting for opioid overdose during March to August 2019 and 2020
| Variable | Total n (%) N = 68 |
March-to-August n (%) | P-value | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
2019 N = 42 |
2020 N = 26 |
|||
| Gender | ||||
| Male | 32 (47.1) | 17 (40.5) | 15 (57.7) | 0.258 |
| Female | 36 (52.9) | 25 (59.5) | 11 (42.3) | |
| Age (years) (mean ± SD) | 40.6 ± 16.8 | 38.7 ± 16.2 | 43.6 ± 17.6 | 0.246 |
| Arrival mode | ||||
| Ambulance | 55 (80.9) | 37 (88.1) | 18 (69.2) | 0.108 |
| Other | 13 (19.1) | 5 (11.9) | 8 (30.8) | |
| Nature of overdosea | ||||
| Intentional | 32 (47.8) | 22 (53.7) | 10 (38.5) | 0.336 |
| Unintentional | 35 (52.2) | 19 (46.3) | 16 (61.5) | |
| Opioids used in overdoseb | ||||
| Pharmaceutical | 49 (72.1) | 32 (76.2) | 17 (65.4) | 0.492 |
| Non-pharmaceutical | 19 (27.9) | 10 (23.8) | 9 (34.6) | |
| Drugs used in overdose | ||||
| Opioids only | 23 (33.8) | 18 (42.9) | 5 (19.2) | 0.082 |
| Opioids and non | 45 (66.2) | 24 (57.1) | 21 (80.8) | |
| opioids | ||||
| Number of drugs consumed in overdose | ||||
| 1–3 | 49 (72.1) | 34 (81.0) | 15 (57.7) | 0.072 |
| 4–7 | 19 (27.9) | 8 (19.0) | 11 (42.3) | |
| Inpatient admission | ||||
| Yes | 18 (26.5) | 11 (26.2) | 7 (26.9) | 1.000 |
| No | 50 (73.5) | 31 (73.8) | 19 (73.1) | |
| ED and/or ambulance naloxone provided | ||||
| Yes | 28 (41.2) | 14 (33.3) | 14 (53.8) | 0.157 |
| No | 40 (58.8) | 28 (66.7) | 12 (46.2) | |
ED emergency department, SD standard deviation
aExcluding 1 deceased patient for whom the nature of overdose was not determined
bPharmaceutical opioids and opioid derivatives are classified under the Standard for the Uniform Scheduling of Medicines and Poisons (SUSMP) as Schedule 2, 3, 4 and 8, while non-pharmaceutical opioids are classified as Schedule 9