TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2001//
TI  - Attempted suicide by drug overdose and by poison-ingestion methods seen at the main general hospital in the Fiji islands: a comparative study
JO  - General hospital psychiatry
A1  - Aghanwa, Henry S.
SP  - 266
EP  - 271
VL  - 23
IS  - 5
N2  - 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.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0163-8343
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/
ID  - ref1
ER  -