Quebec not immune to alarming trend of teenage drug overdoses: Montreal doctor / Le Québec n’est pas à l’abri de l’augmentation alarmante des surdoses chez les ados: un médecin de Montréal explique

By Gareth Madoc-Jones with comments from Dr. Nicholas Chadi, CityNews, September 12, 2023

A Montreal addiction researcher says teenagers dying from drug overdoses is an alarming epidemiological trend that’s gripping Western Canada and could be coming to Quebec.

A survey on overdoses and severe drug toxicity among children and teenagers aged 12 and over revealed 128 Canadian pediatricians have dealt with 636 cases of overdoses or severe drug toxicity in the past two years in Canada.

The study’s lead investigator was Dr. Nicholas Chadi, a specialist in adolescent medicine and an addiction researcher at CHU Sainte-Justine.

“The study was novel in the way that it really showed that drug overdose is a pediatric issue and so pediatricians or pediatric health providers really need to get educated on what are the trends in what’s going on,” said Chadi.

“It’s probably only a matter of time before young people in Quebec are also increasingly affected by this overdose crisis that is really present all across North America.”

The research involved surveying 934 pediatricians. About 14 per cent of them reported they had treated at least one overdose or episode of severe drug toxicity for the age group studied. Sixty per cent of the overdoses and severe drug toxicities were from sedatives and stimulants, and about half of them were from opioids. (Read more)