Citation

Damas FB, Zannin M, Serrano A. Rev. Bras. Toxicol. 2009; 22(1/2): 21-26.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2009, Sociedade Brasileira de Toxicologia)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

It has been recognized that toxic agents, such as prescribed medicines, pesticides or any other substances, are used as “weapons” to attempt suicide. The objective of this study is know statistic features about the toxic agents used in the suicide attempts recorded at the Toxicological Information Center of Santa Catarina (CIT-SC). Therefore, a descriptive study of quantitative data was used to access a historical serie (1994 a 2006). From 75.755 cases of intoxication registered, there were analyzed 10,310 cases of suicide attempt by toxic agents. In these 13 years, CITSC has been logging progressively more cases of suicide attempt, and that was largely due to acute single exposure, resulting in clinical intoxication. Medicines were responsible for 56 per cent of cases, followed by pesticides, with 34 per cent, and by industrial and domestic chemicals products. There was not proved an increase in the rate of suicide attempt, but there was a real growth in the use of medications for this objective, which may be due to multiple causes, from cultural to flaws in the prescription and dispensing. It suggested that policies of control of xenobiotics, especially about medicines and pesticides, need improvement of the rules and more accuracy in the use.

Language: pt