Voluntary self-poisoning as a cause of admission to a tertiary hospital internal medicine clinic in Piraeus, Greece within a year

• Published in: BMC psychiatry Vol. 1; no. 1; p. 4
• Main Authors: Tountas, C, Sotiropoulos, A, Skliros, S A, Kotsini, V, Peppas, T A, Tamvakos, E, Pappas, S
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 02.10.2001; BioMed Central; BMC
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Age Factors; Aged; Drug Overdose - epidemiology; Female; Greece - epidemiology; Hospital Departments; Hospitalization - statistics & numerical data; Humans; Internal Medicine; Male; Middle Aged; Sex Factors; Suicide, Attempted - statistics & numerical data; Greece
• ISSN: 1471-244X; 1471-244X
• DOI: 10.1186/1471-244X-1-4

Out of 1705 patients hospitalised for various reasons in the 3rd Internal Medicine Department of the Regional General Hospital of Nikaea, in Piraeus, 146(8,5%) persons were admitted for drug intoxication between November 1999 and November 2000. On average, these persons [male 50(34,2%)--female 96(65,8%)] were admitted to the hospital within 3.7 hours after taking the drug. The drugs that were more frequently taken, alone or in combination with other drugs, were sedatives (67.1%), aspirins and analgesics (mainly paracetamol) (43.5%). 38.3% of patients had a mental illness history, 31.5% were in need of psychiatric help and 45.2% had made a previous suicide attempt. No death occurred during the above period and the outcome of the patients' health was normal. After mental state examination, the mental illnesses diagnosed were depression (20.96%), psychosis (15.32%), dysthymic disorder (16,2%), anxiety disorder (22.58%) and personality disorder (8.87%). Self-poisoning remains a crucial problem. The use of paracetamol and sedatives are particularly important in the population studied. Interpersonal psychiatric therapy may be a valuable treatment after people tried to poison themselves.