IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/mpopst/v18y2011i3p172-188.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Estimating the Incidence of Hidden, Untreated Opiate Use

Author

Listed:
  • ORLA DEMPSEY
  • CATHERINE COMISKEY

Abstract

Illegal drug use is a hidden phenomenon, making it extremely difficult to obtain accurate estimates of untreated use. Yet it is this very estimate of incidence that is required by policy makers and service providers who are responsible for allocating increasingly scarce resources in times of worldwide recession. Using Irish data on more than 6,000 cases of clients presenting for first treatment, a Gamma incubation period distribution describing progression to first opiate treatment is fitted. An analytical solution of the back calculation method and a linear Volterra integral equation are used to project back and estimate the hidden, untreated population of opiate users.

Suggested Citation

  • Orla Dempsey & Catherine Comiskey, 2011. "Estimating the Incidence of Hidden, Untreated Opiate Use," Mathematical Population Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(3), pages 172-188.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:mpopst:v:18:y:2011:i:3:p:172-188
    DOI: 10.1080/08898480.2011.589764
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08898480.2011.589764
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/08898480.2011.589764?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:mpopst:v:18:y:2011:i:3:p:172-188. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/GMPS20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.