Citation

Aghanwa HS. Gen. Hosp. Psychiatry 2001; 23(5): 266-271.

Affiliation

Department of Psychiatry, School of Medical Sciences, Fiji School of Medicine, Brown Street, P.M.B., Suva, Fiji Islands. henry@fsm.ac.fj

Copyright

(Copyright © 2001, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

11600168

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: This study examined the prevalence and the characteristics of deliberate self-poisoning patients seen at the main general hospital in the Fiji Islands. METHOD: Thirty-one consecutive patients with deliberate drug-overdose and 27 others with nonoverdosed self-poisoning were compared on sociodemographic and clinical variables. RESULTS: Deliberate self-poisoning cases represented 0.3% of the hospital admissions, and had a rate of 25.9 per 100,000 population. The overdose group was significantly older (P<.05), whereas the poison-ingestion group had significantly greater proportion of males (P<.03). The rate of psychiatric morbidity was significantly higher in the overdose group (P=.04), whereas the history of alcohol abuse was significantly higher in the other group (P=.04). Paracetamol (35.5%) and paraquat (29.7%) were the most commonly used agents. CONCLUSIONS: Age, gender, rate of psychiatric morbidity, or history of alcohol abuse could be predictive of whether drug overdose or poison ingestion would be used for deliberate self-poisoning. This information could be relevant in the formulation of suicide preventive strategies.

Language: en