Our request
We ask NCHS to publish ketamine-specific drug-involved mortality counts by intent, where supported by the underlying records and releasable under applicable privacy protections.
Please present death-certificate mentions separately from toxicology findings. If those sources cannot be linked or distinguished in a given table, state that limitation rather than presenting them as equivalent measures.
For each release, please include the years covered, case definitions, geographic coverage, denominators, missingness, and any suppression or classification rules. Please retain unknown or undetermined intent as its own category where appropriate.
Why it matters
The project identifies NCHS drug-involved mortality records as a source for an unresolved question: what death certificates record specifically for ketamine, by intent.
Separating certificate mentions from toxicology would help readers understand what each measure represents. Neither type of mention alone establishes that ketamine caused or contributed to a death.
What good reporting looks like
- Define whether a count comes from a certificate text field, a coded record, toxicology, or another source.
- Keep intent categories and unknown classifications explicit.
- Document changes to coding, coverage, or data availability across years.