[Therapeutic psychotropic drugs: Most common cause of unintentional poisoning in children]

Abstract

Introduction: The aim of this article is to determine the most common substances involved in unintentional poisoning in children attending Pediatric Emergency Departments (PED) in Spain.

Methods: A descriptive study was conducted based on a prospective registry of the poisonings registered in the 57 PED participating in the Toxicology Surveillance System of the Spanish Society of Pediatric Emergencies between October 2008 and September 2013.

Results: A total of 639 poisoning were registered during the study period, 459 of them (71.8%) were unintentional. The most commonly involved substances were drugs (253, 55.1%) followed by household products (137, 29.8%). The drug groups most involved were psychotropic drugs (62, 24.5%), which included benzodiazepines (54), anti-catarrhal (41, 16.2%), and antipyretics (39, 15.4%).

Conclusions: The most common reason for consulting Spanish PEDs is the unintentional ingestion of psychotropic drugs, mainly benzodiazepines.

Keywords: Children; Emergency; Intoxicación; Niño; No intencionada; Poisoning; Psicofármaco; Psychotropic; Unintentional; Urgencias.