Trends in cocaine use and cocaine-related harms in Ireland: a retrospective, multi-source database study
| dc.contributor.author | Mongan, Deirdre | en |
| dc.contributor.author | Millar, Seán R. | en |
| dc.contributor.author | Carew, Anne Marie | en |
| dc.contributor.author | Kelleher, Cathy | en |
| dc.contributor.author | Daly, Antoinette | en |
| dc.contributor.author | Lyons, Suzi | en |
| dc.contributor.author | Galvin, Brian | en |
| dc.contributor.author | Smyth, Bobby P. | en |
| dc.contributor.funder | Department of Health, Ireland | en |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2025-07-17T14:43:54Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2025-07-17T14:43:54Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2025-07-02 | en |
| dc.description.abstract | Background: Increased cocaine supply has coincided with increased global cocaine use. In 2019 Ireland had one of the highest last-year rates of cocaine use in Europe. However, there is a lack of data on the health-related impacts of cocaine use in European countries over time. Methods: This retrospective, multi-source database study utilised data from national databases to evaluate the following time trends: (1) prevalence of cocaine use; (2) number of cocaine-related hospital discharges; (3) number of cocaine-related psychiatric hospital admissions; (4) treatment demand for problem cocaine use; and (5) cocaine-related deaths. Joinpoint regression was used to examine change points over time and average annual percentage changes (AAPCs). Results: Last-year cocaine use among 15–64-year-olds increased from 1·1% in 2002/03 to 2·4% in 2022/23. The number of cocaine-related acute hospital discharges per 100,000 population increased from 1·4 in 2000 to 24·3 in 2023 (AAPC: 13·0%; 95% CI: 11·95, 14·84), and psychiatric hospitalisations increased from 0·2 in 2000 to 2·4 in 2022 (AAPC: 11·1%; 95% CI: 9·41, 15·48). Treatment entrants reporting cocaine as a main problem drug increased from 1·5 per 100,000 population in 2000 to 93·2 in 2023 (AAPC: 17·6%; 95% CI: 15·89, 20·74), while cocaine-related deaths increased from 0·3 in 2000 to 5·6 in 2020 (AAPC: 16·9%; 95% CI: 14·71, 21·70). In general, rates of harm increased from 2000 to 2007, decreased until 2011–2013, and since 2013 have increased significantly and consistently. Conclusions: Multiple databases show significant increases in cocaine-related harm since 2000. Responding to cocaine-related health problems and prevention efforts focused on cocaine constitute a public health priority. | en |
| dc.description.status | Peer reviewed | en |
| dc.description.version | Published Version | en |
| dc.format.mimetype | application/pdf | en |
| dc.identifier.articleid | 2285 | |
| dc.identifier.citation | Mongan, D., Millar, S.R., Carew, A.M., Kelleher, C., Daly, A., Lyons, S., Galvin, B. and Smyth, B.P., 2025. Trends in cocaine use and cocaine-related harms in Ireland: a retrospective, multi-source database study. BMC Public Health, 25(1), pp.1-10. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-025-23224-y | en |
| dc.identifier.doi | 10.1186/s12889-025-23224-y | en |
| dc.identifier.issn | 14712458 | en |
| dc.identifier.issued | 1 | |
| dc.identifier.journaltitle | BMC Public Health | en |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/10468/17717 | |
| dc.identifier.volume | 25 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | en |
| dc.publisher | BioMed Central Ltd | en |
| dc.rights | © 2025, the Author(s). Open Access. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ | en |
| dc.rights.uri | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ | |
| dc.subject | Cocaine | en |
| dc.subject | Deaths | en |
| dc.subject | Harms | en |
| dc.subject | Treatment | en |
| dc.subject | Trends | en |
| dc.subject | Use | en |
| dc.title | Trends in cocaine use and cocaine-related harms in Ireland: a retrospective, multi-source database study | en |
| dc.type | Article (peer reviewed) | en |
