Citation

Tountas C, Sotiropoulos A, Skliros SA, Kotsini V, Peppas TA, Tamvakos E, Pappas S. BMC Psychiatry 2001; 1: 4.

Affiliation

Academic Dpt of Medicine, Hippokration General Hospital, Athens, Greece. stipapas@hellasnet.gr

Copyright

(Copyright © 2001, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group - BMC)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

11602022

PMCID

PMC57812

Abstract

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.

Language: en