TY  - JOUR
PY  - 1995//
TI  - The cost of antidepressant overdose
JO  - General hospital psychiatry
A1  - D'Mello, D. A.
A1  - Finkbeiner, D. S.
A1  - Kocher, K. N.
SP  - 454
EP  - 455
VL  - 17
IS  - 6
N2  - Ninety percent of suicide attempts referred to a general hospital are by self-poisoning. Among women, drug overdose is the commonest means of suicide. In a retrospective naturalistic review of 200 patients who were treated in the Critical Care Unit of a general hospital following medication overdose, 12% were antidepressant overdoses. The mean duration of hospital stay for overdose with tricyclic antidepressants (TCA) was more than double that for overdose with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) (7 vs 3 days; z = 2.20, p < 0.05). The dollar cost of hospital treatment for patients who overdosed on TCAs was four times greater than that for patients who overdosed on SSRIs ($22,923 vs $5,379; z = 2.30, p < 0.05). The tricyclic compounds clearly have a price advantage over more recently introduced antidepressant agents fluoxetine, sertraline, paroxetine, venlafaxine, and bupropion. The apparent cost advantage of prescribing a less expensive drug may be nullified by the cost associated with adverse consequences.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0163-8343
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/
ID  - ref1
ER  -