TY - JOUR PY - 2022// TI - Adolescent self-harm with medicines: intentional paracetamol overdose could be the commonest in Ghana JO - Ghana social science journal A1 - Quarshi, Emmanuel Nii-Boye SP - 1 EP - 15 VL - 19 IS - 1 N2 - This research note describes self-reported medicines used by adolescents for self-harm in Ghana and highlights some of the emerging evidence on access to the identified medicines. A secondary analysis of data drawn from a 2017 regionally representative survey on self-harm among in-school and street-connected adolescents in Ghana was performed. Frequencies and proportions were applied to data provided by an analytical sample of 56 adolescents (in-school = 40; street-connected = 16) who reported self-poisoning using medicines. More females (n = 46) than males (n = 10) reported using medicines for self-harm. Paracetamol was the most frequently used over-the-counter medicine, and sleeping pill was the commonly used prescription medicine. Most in-school adolescents accessed medicines at home and community pharmacies, while street-connected adolescents accessed medicines mainly on the black market. In-school adolescents had access to (grand)parents' prescribed medications and other random medicines at home. These initial exploratory findings are not aimed at providing representative descriptive evidence on self-poisoning with medicines among adolescents in Ghana. Although this research note rec­ommends some preventive measures, broadly, the findings are intended to lay the groundwork for a systematic investigation of adolescent self-poisoning involving the use of medicines and the development of evidence-informed intervention and prevention strategies.

Language: en

LA - en SN - 0855-4730 UR - http://dx.doi.org/ ID - ref1 ER -