It is estimated that over 70 000 lives were lost to drug overdoses in Europe in the first decade of the twenty-first century. Reducing drug-related deaths therefore remains a major challenge for public health policy. This analysis describes some of the factors that increase the risk of fatal and non-fatal overdoses and a number of interventions developed to prevent these events.

Part of the ‘Perspectives on drugs’ (PODs) series, launched alongside the annual European Drug Report, these designed-for-the-web interactive analyses aim to provide deeper insights into a selection of important issues.

Note that the online version contains additional interactive or audiovisual material not available in the PDF version

http://www.emcdda.europa.eu/publications/pods/preventing-overdose-deaths