Citation

Cantor CH. Acta Psychiatr. Scand. Suppl. 1989; 354: 69-71.

Affiliation

Queensland Dept. of Health Valley Community Psychiatry Service, Brisbane, Australia.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1989, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

2589106

Abstract

Suicide rates may be reduced by decreasing the availability, cultural acceptance or lethality of certain methods of suicide. With these principles in mind fatal overdoses in Brisbane 1979-1987 were surveyed for substances involved. Psychotropic agents, especially barbiturates predominated. Chloral hydrate was far the most commonly implicated single compound. A case is put for curtailing the availability of barbiturates and chloral hydrate. This combined with increasing detection of depressed persons may lead to a further rise in overdoses involving antidepressants which as a group require reduction in their lethality.

Language: en