Abstract
Suicide is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Deliberate self-poisoning (DSP), is the most common method of attempted suicide and accounts for the majority of suicide-related hospital admissions. The incidence in Egypt tends to be under-estimated. Aim: Evaluating the pattern of deliberate self-poisoning cases who were admitted to Poison Control Center Ain Shams University Hospitals (PCC-ASUH) from January 2015 to December 2016. Method: An observational study was conducted including all patients deliberately self-poisoned throughout the study period .Recorded data in the present study included: age, gender, and residence, type of causative agent, severity of poisoning, and mortality. Results: A total of 10035 and 10758 self-poisoned patients were received in 2015 and 2016 respectively. Results remained similar in both years of the study. Cases were predominantly in the age group between 19 and 30 years, females 69% and were received from Cairo. Used substances were mainly drugs: centrally-acting drugs ranked first including Tricyclic antidepressants TCA, Benzodiazepines (BZD), antipsychotics and carbamazepine followed by analgesics and cardiopulmonary drugs. Among non-drug agents, organophosphorus insecticides were the most common .Lower number of cases used phosphides, corrosives and detergents, petroleum distillates, phenol and paraphenylenediamine (PPD). The majority of cases were mild (>70%) in both years of the study. Severe cases constituted 6.8% of DSP cases, with overall in-hospital mortality 0.6%. Organophosphorus insecticides topped the agents responsible for mortality followed by unknown drugs with small contributions by other drug and non-drug agents. Conclusion: Deliberate self-poisoning is a common presentation to PCC-ASUH .General trends show significant predominance of adolescents and young adults especially females, usage of drugs mainly centrally-acting agents, and low case fatality which is mainly in relation to organophosphorus compounds
Highlights
Suicide is a global problem especially in low- and middle-income countries (World Health Organization, 2014a)
Deliberate self-poisoning is a common presentation to PCC-ASUH considering the high number of cases received every year
The current study provides an important overview of Deliberate self-poisoning (DSP) annual trends especially with the limited number of studies on DSP in Egypt and the possible underreported incidence due to cultural and social factors
Summary
Suicide is a global problem especially in low- and middle-income countries (World Health Organization, 2014a). Deliberate self-poisoning (DSP), the third leading method of suicide overall, accounts for more than 70% of all serious suicide attempts. Subject and Method This work was conducted as an observational study including all patients deliberately self-poisoned who were admitted to Poison Control Center Ain Shams University Hospitals PCC -ASUH from January 2015 to December 2016. Recorded data in the present study included: age, gender, and residence, type of agent, severity, and mortality. Cardiopulmonary drugs constituted about 9% of causative agents employed in DSP with statistically insignificant difference in both years of the study. Severe cases constituted were 6.8% of DSP cases, with overall in-hospital mortality 0.6% in both years of the study .Organophosphorus insecticides topped the agents responsible for mortality followed by unknown drugs with small contributions by other drug and non-drug agents. In-hospital mortality and offended agents are illustrated in table (8)
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