%0 Journal Article
%T Acute poisoning among patients attended to in an emergency department: from the pre-pandemic period to the new normality
%J Revista Clinica Espanola
%D 2022
%A Caballero-Bermejo, Antonio F.
%A Ortega-Pérez, Juan
%A Frontera-Juan, Guillermo
%A Homar-Amengual, Catalina
%A Barceló-Martín, Bernardino
%A Puiguriguer-Ferrando, Jordi
%V ePub
%N ePub
%P ePub-ePub
%X BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused global changes that affect the daily life of the world's population, with a direct impact on individuals' physical and mental health as well as on their social and recreational habits. <br><br>METHODS: This study aimed to retrospectively analyze the demographic and clinical characteristics of patients attended to for acute poisoning in a hospital emergency department (ED) at three different periods of time: pre-pandemic (2019), after strict lockdown of the population in Spain (2020), and post-pandemic (2021). We analyzed 2 months (June and July) in each period. <br><br>RESULTS: A total of 1,182 cases of acute poisoning were included. Compared to the pre-pandemic period, during lockdown, the number of patients with acute poisoning decreased (2019: 1.9% vs. 2020: 1.5%; p<0.01); the ratio of men to women increased (2.0 vs. 1.4; p=0.02); and the mean age of patients increased (2019: 31.4 vs. 2020: 41.3; p<0.001), a trend which continued in 2021 (38.3). Poisoning with suicidal intention also increased during the pandemic (2019: 8.71% vs. 2020: 21.0%; p<0.01) whereas poisonings with a recreational intention declined (2019: 76.1% vs. 2020: 62.0%; p<0.01) with a non-significant increase in 2021 (69.0%, p=0.07). <br><br>CONCLUSION: The COVID-19 pandemic generated clinical and epidemiological changes in the acute poisonings attended to in a hospital emergency department during the various phases of the pandemic.<p /> <p>Language: es</p>
%G es
%I Elsevier Publishing
%@ 0014-2565
%U http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rce.2022.02.003