@article{ref1,
title="Hospital-treated deliberate self-poisoning in the older adult: Identifying specific clinical assessment needs",
journal="Australian and New Zealand journal of psychiatry",
year="2020",
author="Jackson, Mariann and McGill, Katie and Lewin, Terry J. and Bryant, Jenifer and Whyte, Ian and Carter, Gregory",
volume="ePub",
number="ePub",
pages="ePub-ePub",
abstract="BACKGROUND: Hospital-treated deliberate self-poisoning is common, with a median patient age of around 33 years. Clinicians are less familiar with assessing older adults with self-poisoning and little is known about their specific clinical requirements. <br><br>OBJECTIVE: To identify clinically important factors in the older-age population by comparing older adults (65+ years) with middle-aged adults (45-64 years) during an index episode of hospital-treated deliberate self-poisoning. <br><br>METHODS: A prospective, longitudinal, cohort study of people presenting to a regional referral centre for deliberate self-poisoning (Calvary Mater Newcastle, Australia) over a 10-year period (2003-2013). We compared older-aged adults with middle-aged adults on demographic, toxicological and psychiatric variables and modelled independent predictors of referral for psychiatric hospitalisation on discharge with logistic regression. <br><br>RESULTS: There were (<i>n</i> = 157) older-aged and (<i>n</i> = 925) middle-aged adults. The older-aged group was similar to the middle-aged group in several ways: proportion living alone, reporting suicidal ideation/planning, prescribed antidepressant and antipsychotic drugs, and with a psychiatric diagnosis. However, the older-aged group were also different in several ways: greater proportion with cognitive impairment, higher medical morbidity, longer length of stay, and greater prescription and ingestion of benzodiazepines in the deliberate self-poisoning event. Older age was not a predictor of referral for psychiatric hospitalisation in the multivariate model. <br><br>CONCLUSION: Older-aged patients treated for deliberate self-poisoning have a range of clinical needs including ones that are both similar to and different from middle-aged patients. Individual clinical assessment to identify these needs should be followed by targeted interventions, including reduced exposure to benzodiazepines.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0004-8674",
doi="10.1177/0004867419897818",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0004867419897818"
}