Pattern of Deliberate Self-Poisoning in Gorgan, North of Iran

Background: Suicide is a global public health problem. Deliberate Self-Poisoning (DSP) is one of the most common methods of suicide in many countries. This study was designed to identify the trends and characteristics of DSP in Gorgan.Methods: The study was carried out retrospectively in 5 Azar Hospital. It included 549 patients who were hospitalized in the hospital due to DSP from March 2008 to March 2015. Data were obtained from medical records. Stata software and Pearson's chi-squared test were used for data analysis.Results: Of 549 patients, 51% were females and 50.27% were aged 20–29 years. The majority of patients (76.68%) lived in urban areas. Poisoning occurred mostly in summer and the peak was observed in August. Most of the poisoning agents were pharmaceuticals (80.51%). Among the pharmaceuticals, benzodiazepines were involved most often. Overall, 21 patients (3.83%) died. The highest number of deaths was due to aluminum phosphide poisoning (76.19%). In addition, family quarrel was the main cause of DSP (43.17%). There were significant differences between the causes of DSP and demographics. Characteristics including gender, age groups, marital status, employment status and educational status.Conclusion: Deliberate self-poisoning (DSP) with drugs has recently been a serious social problem, especially in the younger generation in Gorgan and there is an urgent need for a prevention plan

Epidemiological survey of suicide attempt by drug poisoning in Gorgan, Iran, 2008 to 2015

Background and purpose: Intentional drug poisoning is one of the most common methods of suicide attempt. The purpose of this study was to determine the demographic characteristics of suicide attempters and identifying the pattern of intentional drug poisoning. Materials and methods: We conducted a descriptive-analytical study in which data was collected from the medical records of suicide attempts by drug poisoning in 5Azar Hospital in Gorgan, Iran, 2008-2015. Data was analyzed by Stata V.11 and Pearson’s Chi-squared test. Results: During these seven years, 442 cases of suicide attempts by drug poisoning were recorded in which there were 244 (55.2%) females and 229 individuals (51.8%) aged 20–29 years. Their mean age was 24.54 ± 8.14 and the majority (79%) lived in urban areas. Also, 224 (55.2%) patients were single and 248 (56.1%) had high school education. Poisoning occurred mostly in summer (28.7%). Among the pharmaceuticals, sedative-hypnotic drugs especially benzodiazepines were used more often (47.5%) followed by narcotic drugs (26.5%) and antidepressants (17.4%). Death occurred in three patients (0.68%) died. Family quarrel was found to be the main cause of suicide attempts (46.8%). Conclusion: Sedative-hypnotic drugs especially benzodiazepines were the most common agents used in intentional drug poisoning that were seen most commonly among younger individuals, single persons and people with family quarrel. © 2016, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences. All Rights reserved