Assumption of drugs with self-injurer purpose: a retrospective study about 111 patients hospitalized in Policlinico of Modena

Submitted: 29 April 2013
Accepted: 29 April 2013
Published: 30 April 2013
Abstract Views: 3515
PDF: 25039
Publisher's note
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Authors

AIM OF THE STUDY The aim of this work was to evaluate the epidemiology of suicidal attempts by ingestion of drugs in our area.
MATERIALS AND METHODS This is a retrospective study considering all patients admitted to the hospital between January 2004 and December 2006 for suicidal attempts using drugs.
RESULTS A total of 111 patients were seen in our Department in the evaluated period. The large majority of patients were women (75%). Suicidal attempt was more common in individuals aged 31 to 40 years. The more common drugs used were: BDZ (28%), anti-depressive (21%), anti-psychotics (10%) and anti-epileptics (8%). A gastric washout was performed in 65.8% of all patients admitted to the hospital. The most used antidote was flumazenil. Alterations of laboratory exams were seen only in a small percentage of the cases. In the majority of cases, suicide was at the first attempt. 71% of patients were followed by psychiatrist and were taking daily psychiatric pharmacologic therapy; 5% had a history of previous admission to the hospital in a psychiatric ward; only 24% had no a history of a prior mental illness. 43% of patients were admitted to a psychiatric ward after intensive treatment in our department. Self-discharging was not usual (10%), and only few patients were restrained against their will (3%).
CONCLUSIONS Our study has identified some risk factors for a suicidal attempt. Family doctors should have a stronger control of their patients with mental illness especially during the first period of treatment. In future it should be very helpful to create an informatic network connecting all departments involved in the care of these patients. Moreover, it is crucial to increase the role of family doctors in the care of psychiatric patients after their hospitalization.

Dimensions

Altmetric

PlumX Metrics

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

PlumX Metrics

PlumX Metrics  provide insights into the ways people interact with individual pieces of research output (articles, conference proceedings, book chapters, and many more) in the online environment. Examples include, when research is mentioned in the news or is tweeted about. Collectively known as PlumX Metrics, these metrics are divided into five categories to help make sense of the huge amounts of data involved and to enable analysis by comparing like with like.

Citations

How to Cite

Brugioni, L., Magnani, P., Berti, E., Gozzi, C., de Niederhausern, F., & Zandomeneghi, R. (2013). Assumption of drugs with self-injurer purpose: a retrospective study about 111 patients hospitalized in Policlinico of Modena. Italian Journal of Medicine, 3(2), 93–98. https://doi.org/10.4081/itjm.2009.93