Citation

Kanehara A, Yamana H, Yasunaga H, Matsui H, Ando S, Okamura T, Kumakura Y, Fushimi K, Kasai K. BJPsych Open 2015; 1(2): 158-163.

Affiliation

Department of Neuropsychiatry, The University of Tokyo Hospital, Tokyo, Japan.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, Royal College of Psychiatrists)

DOI

10.1192/bjpo.bp.115.002204

PMID

27703741

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Repeated drug overdose is a major risk factor for suicide. Data are lacking on the effect of psychiatric intervention on preventing repeated drug overdose. AIMS: To investigate whether psychiatric intervention was associated with reduced readmission to emergency centres due to drug overdose.

METHOD: Using a Japanese national in-patient database, we identified patients who were first admitted to emergency centres for drug overdose in 2010-2012. We used propensity score matching for patient and hospital factors to compare readmission rates between intervention (patients undergoing psychosocial assessment) and unexposed groups.

RESULTS: Of 29 564 eligible patients, 13 035 underwent psychiatric intervention. In the propensity-matched 7938 pairs, 1304 patients were readmitted because of drug overdose. Readmission rate was lower in the intervention than in the unexposed group (7.3% v. 9.1% respectively, P<0.001).

CONCLUSIONS: Psychiatric intervention was associated with reduced readmission in patients who had taken a drug overdose. DECLARATION OF INTEREST: None. COPYRIGHT AND USAGE: © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 2015. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Non-Commercial, No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) licence.

Language: en