Voluntary self-poisoning as a cause of admission to a tertiary hospital internal medicine clinic in Piraeus, Greece within a year
Background
Out of 1705 patients hospitalised for various reasons in the 3rd Internal Medicine Department of the Regional General Hospital of Nikaea, in Piraeus, 146(8,5%) persons were admitted for drug intoxication between November 1999 and November 2000.
Methods
On average, these persons [male 50(34,2%) – female 96(65,8%)] were admitted to the hospital within 3.7 hours after taking the drug.
Results
The drugs that were more frequently taken, alone or in combination with other drugs, were sedatives (67.1%), aspirins and analgesics (mainly paracetamol) (43.5%). 38.3% of patients had a mental illness history, 31.5% were in need of psychiatric help and 45.2% had made a previous suicide attempt. No death occurred during the above period and the outcome of the patients' health was normal. After mental state examination, the mental illnesses diagnosed were depression (20.96%), psychosis (15.32%), dysthymic disorder (16,2%), anxiety disorder (22.58%) and personality disorder (8.87%).
Conclusions
Self-poisoning remains a crucial problem. The use of paracetamol and sedatives are particularly important in the population studied. Interpersonal psychiatric therapy may be a valuable treatment after people tried to poison themselves.
Complete Metadata
| @type | dcat:Dataset |
|---|---|
| accessLevel | public |
| bureauCode |
[
"009:25"
]
|
| contactPoint |
{
"fn": "NIH",
"@type": "vcard:Contact",
"hasEmail": "mailto:info@nih.gov"
}
|
| description | Background Out of 1705 patients hospitalised for various reasons in the 3rd Internal Medicine Department of the Regional General Hospital of Nikaea, in Piraeus, 146(8,5%) persons were admitted for drug intoxication between November 1999 and November 2000. Methods On average, these persons [male 50(34,2%) – female 96(65,8%)] were admitted to the hospital within 3.7 hours after taking the drug. Results The drugs that were more frequently taken, alone or in combination with other drugs, were sedatives (67.1%), aspirins and analgesics (mainly paracetamol) (43.5%). 38.3% of patients had a mental illness history, 31.5% were in need of psychiatric help and 45.2% had made a previous suicide attempt. No death occurred during the above period and the outcome of the patients' health was normal. After mental state examination, the mental illnesses diagnosed were depression (20.96%), psychosis (15.32%), dysthymic disorder (16,2%), anxiety disorder (22.58%) and personality disorder (8.87%). Conclusions Self-poisoning remains a crucial problem. The use of paracetamol and sedatives are particularly important in the population studied. Interpersonal psychiatric therapy may be a valuable treatment after people tried to poison themselves. |
| distribution |
[
{
"@type": "dcat:Distribution",
"title": "Official Government Data Source",
"mediaType": "text/html",
"description": "Visit the original government dataset for complete information, documentation, and data access.",
"downloadURL": "https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC57812/"
}
]
|
| identifier | https://healthdata.gov/api/views/mgzs-f69q |
| issued | 2025-07-14 |
| keyword |
[
"drug-intoxication",
"mental-illness",
"nih",
"self-poisoning",
"suicide-attempt"
]
|
| landingPage | https://healthdata.gov/d/mgzs-f69q |
| modified | 2025-09-06 |
| programCode |
[
"009:033"
]
|
| publisher |
{
"name": "National Institutes of Health",
"@type": "org:Organization"
}
|
| theme |
[
"NIH"
]
|
| title | Voluntary self-poisoning as a cause of admission to a tertiary hospital internal medicine clinic in Piraeus, Greece within a year |
