Self-inflected poisoning at assiut university hospitals retrospective study

Abstract EN

Suicide is a self-inflected death that is intentional rather than accidental.

In the last 45 years suicide rates have increased by 60 % worldwide.

Deliberate self-poisoning (DSP) is the most common method of suicide in developed countries.

Many substances and drugs are used; the most common are organophosphate insecticides and CNS-acting drugs.

In this work a retrospective hospital-based study has been done for cases of suicidal poisoning admitted to the emergency unit of Assuit University Hospitals from January 2004 to December 2007 were studied as regards the age group, sex, the residence, the substance used, the month of the year and the fate of cases.

Statistical analysis was done for the cases.

The total number of cases was 843, males represent 48.9 % of them and females represent 51.1 %.

Using of Medications represent 46.7 % of total number of cases, while Pesticides, Unknown and Miscellaneous poisons represent 29.3 %, 18.5 %, 5.5 % respectively.

The highest percentage was found among cases of age group from 15- < 25 in both males and females for all poisons.

In Cities and Centers the highest percentage was recorded for medications (20.5 and 17.3 respectively), while in Villages the highest percentage was for pesticides (12.3).

The percentage of pesticides poisoning was high in June and January (14.2 and 10.9 respectively), while for medications the highest percentage was in January (13.5).

As regards the fate of cases, recovery was determined to be 70.8 % of the total number of cases.

Death percentage was the highest (3.8) among unknown poisons.

In conclusion sex, age, residence and month of the year may have influence on suicide and the substances used for committing it.