@article{ref1,
title="Drug overdosage and other poisoning in Hong Kong--the Prince of Wales Hospital (Shatin) experience",
journal="Human and experimental toxicology",
year="1994",
author="Chan, T. Y. and Critchley, J. A. and Chan, M. T. and Yu, C. M.",
volume="13",
number="7",
pages="512-515",
abstract="From 1988 to 1991, 732 patients (91.1% Chinese) were admitted to four general medical wards at the Prince of Wales Hospital in Hong Kong with acute poisoning. The patients were predominantly female (68.9%) and relatively young (86.3% below the age of 40). Further analysis of 655 patients indicates that the vast majority of patients (96%) were admitted after self-poisoning with drugs or chemicals while 4% of cases were due to accidental poisoning. The main agents used by the former group included hypnotics/sedatives (33.1%), household products (15.7%), and analgesics (13.7%). There were nine deaths (1.4%). When compared to other Western countries, two important variations in the pattern of acute poisoning were seen. A substantial proportion of drugs ingested by our patients were not precisely identified. 'Dettol', a household product, was commonly used for self-poisoning in Hong Kong. Territory-wide studies of longer duration are needed to provide the physicians in Hong Kong with much needed information on the incidence and the pattern of acute poisoning.<p /><p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0960-3271",
doi="",
url="http://dx.doi.org/"
}