Impact of COVID-19 on poisoning-related mortality in Iran: An interrupted time series study.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic had many negative effects worldwide. These effects involved mental health status issues such as suicide, depression, and the pattern of death associated with drug/poisonings. One of the major concerns of the healthcare community during the pandemic was mortality from poisonings. This study aimed to investigate the trends of mortality from different types of poisonings before and after COVID-19. METHODS: The patients who died from six different categories of drugs or poisons were identified by forensic analysis of body fluids/tissues in Tehran, Iran. The pandemic was separated into the pre-COVID-19 period (April 2018 to January 2020), and the COVID pandemic (February 2020-April 2022). Demographic characteristics were collected from each victim, and comparisons of death trends before and after the pandemic were conducted using the interrupted time series analysis. The absolute number of deaths and proportion of deaths from each type of drug/poisoning were used for the analyses. RESULTS: A total of 6,316 deaths from drugs/poisoning were identified between April 2018-Mar 2022). During this period, 2,485 deaths occurred pre-COVID, and 3,831 were during the COVID-19 era. There were no statistical differences in terms of demographic characteristics before and after the pandemic, except for job status. There was a sharp increase in proportion of methanol death among all poisonings after the start of the pandemic (16.5%, p-value = 0.025), while there was a decreasing trend during the pandemic (-0.915 deaths monthly, p-value = 0.027). The trends for opioids, stimulants, and drug-related deaths changed from decreasing to increasing. No change was seen in the trends for ethanol and volatile substance deaths. This pattern was mirrored in the proportion of each type of poisoning relative to the total number. CONCLUSION: Changes in poisoning-related mortality patterns showed dramatic changes after the start of the pandemic, especially deaths from methanol. Other poisonings such as opioids, stimulants, and drugs should also be addressed as there was an increasing trend during the COVID-19 period, compared to the pre-COVID data.

Risk of COVID-19 infection and the associated hospitalization, ICU admission and mortality in opioid use disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Opioid use disorder (OUD) as a common drug use disorder can affect public health issues, including the COVID-19 pandemic, in which patients with OUD may have higher risk of infection and severe disease. This systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted to investigate the risk of COVID-19 and the associated hospitalization, intensive care unit (ICU) admission, and mortality in patients with OUD. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A comprehensive systematic search was performed on PubMed, Scopus, Embase, and Web of Science to find studies which compared the infection rate and outcomes of COVID-19 in OUD patients in comparison with the normal population. A random effects meta-analysis model was developed to estimate odd ratios (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) between the outcomes of COVID-19 and OUD. RESULTS: Out of 2647 articles identified through the systematic search, eight were included in the systematic review and five in the meta-analysis. Among 73,345,758 participants with a mean age of 57.90 ± 13.4 years, 45.67% were male. The findings suggested no significant statistical relationship between COVID-19 infection and OUD (OR (95% CI): 1.18 (0.47-2.96), p-value: 0.73). Additionally, patients with OUD had higher rate of hospitalization (OR (95% CI) 5.98 (5.02-7.13), p-value<0.01), ICU admission (OR (95% CI): 3.47 (2.24-5.39), p-value<0.01), and mortality by COVID-19) OR (95% CI): 1.52(1.27-1.82), pvalue< 0.01). CONCLUSION: The present findings suggested that OUD is a major risk factor for mortality and the need for hospitalization and ICU admission in patients with COVID-19. It is recommended that policymakers and healthcare providers adopt targeted methods to prevent and manage clinical outcomes and decrease the burden of COVID-19, especially in specific populations such as OUD patients.

A historical cohort study to investigation of statins safety in COVID-19 hospitalized patients.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: A notable proportion of COVID-19 patients need statins for their co-existing conditions. Statins possess several anti-inflammatory properties. We have attempted to describe potential association of exposure to statins and severity of COVID symtpoms in a historical study in hospitalized COVID-19 patients. METHODS: This single-center, historical cohort study was performed in Baharloo hospital as a referral hospital for COVID-19 patients in Tehran. Patients were divided into two groups; 163 statins users and 547 non-users. Mortality rate, intensive care unit (ICU) admission and length of hospitalization were compared between studied groups. In addition, during the investigation, pre-existing conditions were evaluated for groups. If a significant difference was observed between groups, the feature was considered in the adjustment of the odds ratio. RESULTS: At the beginning, statistical analysis study showed that statins users had significantly (p<0.0001) higher mortality rate, ICU admission and length of hospitalization. But after implementation of variables such as age, sex, diabetes, hypertension status, stroke, dyslipidemia, cardiovascular diseases, chronic kidney disease (CKD), corticosteroids, renin-angiotensin-aldosterone axis inhibitors and proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) for adjustment of the odds ratio, a considerable alteration appeared in the studied values. Following adjustment of odds ratio it was shown that statins did not change mortality (95% CI, OR 0.71 (0.41-1.22), p=0.22), ICU admission (95% CI, OR 1.05 (0.66-1.66), p=0.835) and length of hospitalization (95% CI, OR 1.30 (0.78-2.17), p=0.311). In addition, we found that statins could not decrease inflammatory markers in COVID-19 infected patients. CONCLUSION: The use of statins did not seem to change outcomes in COVID19.