Características de la mortalidad por causa tóxica en la Comunidad Autónoma Vasca durante el periodo 1986-2001

background: acute drug-related deaths are frequent, giving rise to high potential years of life lost figures. the objectives of this research are to ascertain the trend in the acute drug-related death rate in the autonomous basque community and the variance thereof in terms of different variables. method: the drug-related death rate data from the autonomous basque community's death register for the 1986-2001 period was analyzed overall in terms of different demographic variables and by cause of death (icd-9 and icd-10). the analysis includes gross death rates and standardized rates by european population. the potential years of life lost are calculated. results: acute drug-related deaths numbering 1,207 in all were recorded during the period under study, totaling 045% of all deaths, for a gross rate of 3.58 deaths / 100,000 inhabitants. the mean potential years of life lost were 2,226.33 /year, for a rate of 1.12 / 1000. a total of 75.97% of these deaths were males, the average age at time of death having been 40.29 years (36.09 for males and 52.64 for females). the etiology most often involved was: accidental (82.19%), followed by intentional (12.43%) and undetermined (5.38%)-. accidental poisoning by other drugs (e-850 in icd-9, x44 in icd-10) was the leading cause of death (42.30% and 34.75% respectively). conclusions: there has been an increase in the number of acute drug-related deaths throughout the period studied, the accidental prescribed drug overdose being the main cause, entailing statistically significant differences by sex and age.