Retrospective analysis of poisoning cases admitted to the emergency medicine

Abstract

Background: We aimed herein to assess demographic, etiological, and clinical characteristics of patients presenting to our hospital's emergency department with acute poisoning.

Method: This study included a total of 509 (0.27%) patients diagnosed with poisoning at our emergency department within a 3-year period. This was a retrospective study.

Results: Seventy-one point three (n = 363) percent of the patients were female. The majority of the victims were in the 18-25 years age group (P < 0.001). The poisoning incident was for suicidal purposes in 83.7% of patients. Among the patients presenting with prescription drug poisoning, 92.9% were poisoned in a suicide attempt while 73.2% of patients presenting with poisoning with non-medical substances were poisoned accidentally. Suicidal poisonings were more common in young age group and females (P < 0.001). The most common poisoning agent was antidepressants (17.6%) followed by analgesics (12.8%), and other psychotropic drugs (6.1%). Antidepressant drugs were the most common prescription drugs taken for suicidal purposes (P < 0.001). Poisonings occurred with a single agent in 72.5% of cases and with two or more agents in 27.5% of cases. Analysis of duration of hospital stay revealed that 52.6% (n = 60) of patients stayed in hospital for 2 days. The mortality rate was 0.4%.

Conclusion: The majority of poisonings were with prescription drugs, for suicidal purposes, in young age group, and in females. In our study, the three most common agents causing poisoning were antidepressants, analgesics, and other psychotropic substances.