@article{ref1,
title="Seeking drugs or seeking help? Escalating "doctor shopping" by young heroin users before fatal overdose",
journal="Medical journal of Australia",
year="2004",
author="Martyres, Raymond F. and Clode, Danielle and Burns, Jane M.",
volume="180",
number="5",
pages="211-214",
abstract="OBJECTIVE: To identify prescription drug-seeking behaviour patterns among young people who subsequently died of heroin-related overdose. DESIGN: Linkage of Medicare and Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and Coroner's Court records from Victoria. SUBJECTS: Two hundred and two 15-24-year-olds who died of heroin-related overdose between 6 January 1994 and 6 October 1999. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Patterns of use of medical services and prescription drugs listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme in the years before death, and use of all drugs just before death. RESULTS: Polydrug use was reported in 90% of toxicology reports, and prescription drugs were present in 80% of subjects. Subjects accessed medical services six times more frequently than the general population aged 14-24 years, and more than half of all prescribed drugs were those prone to misuse, such as benzodiazepines and opioid analgesics. A pattern of increasing drug-seeking behaviour in the years before death was identified, with doctor-visitation rates, number of different doctors seen and rates of prescriptions peaking in the year before death. CONCLUSIONS: An apparent increase in &quot;doctor shopping&quot; in the years before heroin-related death may reflect the increasing misuse of prescription drugs, but also an increasing need for help. Identification of a pattern of escalating doctor shopping could be an opportunity for intervention, and potentially, reduction in mortality.<p /><p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0025-729X",
doi="",
url="http://dx.doi.org/"
}