Trends of drug-related poisoning cases attended to at a poison control center.

Abstract

Drug-related poisonings have a high impact on morbidity and mortality, representing the first cause of intoxication in Brazil. To describe the trends of cases of drug-related poisonings attended to by a poison control center. A quantitative approach (cross-sectional trend study) with data analysis of cases of drug-related poisonings attended to at the Poison Control Center of University Hospital of the State University of Londrina. Data were collected from service notification records for the period 1985 to 2014. For statistical analysis, a simple linear regression model was used. Of the 36,707 cases attended to by the service, 22.5% (n = 8,608) were drug-related poisonings. There was an increase in the proportion of cases for both sexes (R2 = 0.195, p = 0.014) and males (R2 = 0.403, p < 0.001). There was a trend towards a higher proportion of cases involving the analgesic, anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive drug classes (R2 = 0.521, p = 0.018), antidepressants (R2 = 0.923, p < 0.001) and antipsychotics (R2 = 0.869; p < 0.001). Antibiotics showed a trend toward a lower proportion of cases (R2 = 0.773, p = 0.001). There was a trend for a higher proportion of cases of drug-related poisonings in males. Also, there was an increased trend towards cases involving analgesics/anti-inflammatories/immunosuppressants, antidepressants and antipsychotics.