Drug-induced deaths and non-fatal poisonings in youth – associations with ACE and psychiatric morbidity

Background
There has been an increase in drug-induced death in youth aged under 25 in Finland. More research is needed to increase the understanding of the problems leading to these unfortunate yet preventable incidences. In this study, we examine whether adverse childhood experiences (ACE) or psychiatric morbidity are associated with drug-induced deaths and non-fatal drug poisonings among young people. 
Methods
A population-level data from Finnish national health care and social welfare registers was used. Two cohorts born in 1991 (n=64,996) and 1997 (n=59,000) were followed-up for 23 years until the end of 2013 and 2019, respectively. The outcome measure was either drug-induced death or non-fatal drug poisoning. The associations of ACE (parents’ substance abuse or psychiatric morbidity, economic difficulties in family measured by receipt of long-term social assistance and out-of-home placement) as well as young person’s own psychiatric and neuropsychiatric morbidity with the outcome measure were analyzed by using Cox proportional hazard models.
Results 
Preliminary results indicate that out-of-home placement and own psychiatric and neuropsychiatric morbidity are associated with increased risk for drug-induced death or non-fatal poisoning among youth. No statistically significant associations were found between parents’ substance abuse, parents’ psychiatric morbidity or family’s economic difficulties with young people’s drug-induced deaths or non-fatal poisonings in these preliminary analyses. More refined results will be presented.
Conclusions 
The deaths of young people are major health, economic, and public health issues, due to the high number of years of life lost. They also involve a vast amount of suffering among relatives and peers. The findings of this study can be utilized in preventing drug poisonings and drug-induced deaths among young people. The implications of the results will be further discussed.