Profile of intoxications served at the 24-hour emergency service unit

Ana Carolina Arrebola Tredice Di Palma,Cristina Sanches,Alba Otoni,Thaís Lorenna Souza Sales,Sayonara Maria Lia Fook,Farah Maria Drumond Chequer,Geisa Cristina Da Silva Alves

doi:10.4322/2179-443x.0680

Abstract

Intoxications represent a serious public health problem. According to the World Health Organization, 193,000 deaths per year are caused by unintended intoxications worldwide. This study aims to know the profile of intoxications at the 24-hour Emergency Service Unit in Divinopolis, in the state of Minas Gerais. This is a descriptive study in which the study population chosen were all patients treated for intoxications in the period from 2017 to 2018, registered in the health service; 421 cases of intoxications were recorded. The female gender was the most prevalent, and the age group with the most cases was 21 to 30 years. The main circumstance found was attempted suicide (83.1 %), and the main causative agent was medication (76.5 %), with benzodiazepines being the main class responsible for intoxications. The most used treatment was gastric lavage and activated charcoal. This study demonstrates that knowledge about the city's intoxication profile is important for the development of treatment and patient management methods to better suit the demands of the municipality.

Highlights

Intoxications are defined as harmful effects arising from the interaction of one or more toxic agents with the biological system, which are capable of triggering an organic imbalance and manifesting clinical and/or laboratory alterations (Brasil, 2018)
Suicide rates are low for the group of children under 15 and increase progressively with age, and existing personal, health, and professional problems become the main focus of suicide attempts (World Health Organization, 2019b)
Female patients are 6.313 times more likely to attempt suicide when compared to male patients; and with regard to the residential area, patients residing in the urban area have 7.393 more times for attempting suicide compared to patients in the rural area

Summary

Introduction

Intoxications are defined as harmful effects arising from the interaction of one or more toxic agents with the biological system, which are capable of triggering an organic imbalance and manifesting clinical and/or laboratory alterations (Brasil, 2018). Intoxication cases are commonly observed in hospital emergencies and represent a serious public health problem. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 193,000 worldwide deaths per year are caused by unintentional intoxication (World Health Organization, 2018, 2019a). In relation to intentional causes, according to the World Health Organization, this is among the twenty main causes of death worldwide. There are an estimated 800,000 deaths from suicide attempts each year. Suicide rates are low for the group of children under 15 and increase progressively with age, and existing personal, health, and professional problems become the main focus of suicide attempts (World Health Organization, 2019b)

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