Khan, Muhammad Shoaib

Naqvi, Haider, Aga Khan University

Patel, Junaid

Shahid, Muhammad

English

eCommons@AKU

eCommons@AKUDepartment of Emergency Medicine Medical College, PakistanFebruary 2007Characteristics and outcome of patients with drugoverdose at a tertiary care hospital in Karachi.Muhammad ShahidAga Khan UniversityJunaid PatelThe Aga Khan UniversityHaider Naqvi Aga Khan UniversityMuhammad Shoaib KhanAga Khan UniversityFollow this and additional works at: http://ecommons.aku.edu/pakistan_fhs_mc_emerg_medPart of the Emergency Medicine Commons, and the Psychiatric and Mental Health CommonsRecommended CitationShahid, M., Patel, J., Naqvi, H., Khan, M. S. (2007). Characteristics and outcome of patients with drug overdose at a tertiary carehospital in Karachi.. Journal of Pakistan Medical Association, 57(2), 110.Available at: http://ecommons.aku.edu/pakistan_fhs_mc_emerg_med/183Letter to EditorCharacteristics and outcome of Patients with Drug overdose at a tertiary care hos-pital in KarachiMadam, Deliberate self harm (DSH) is defined asharming oneself intentionally; with or without suicidalintent.1 In Pakistan there is accumulating evidence that inci-dences of both suicide and DSH have increased in recentyears.2 The prevailing issues of poverty, unemployment,corruption, human rights violation, denial of justice, dis-criminations, violence, loosening of cohesion in societymay be contributing to rise in suicidal tendencies inPakistan.3 The WHO estimates that for every suicide, thereare at least 10-20 DSH acts.4 A 7-year (1995-2001) reviewof all autopsies for suicide in Karachi gave an average of198.5 suicides per year.5 By this estimate there should be atleast 2000 to 4000 cases of DSH in Karachi annually. A retrospective study was conducted to observe thecharacteristics and outcome of patients admitted in hospitalwith drug overdose from January to December 2005. Demographic details of patients, type, route andquantity of drug used, reason of drug ingestion, past psychi-atric history, psychiatric consult, six months follow up withthe psychiatrist were recorded on a specially devised dataextraction form. The data was subjected to a descriptive sta-tistics analysis. During the study period 60 patients were admittedwith drug overdose. Mean age of subjects was 31 years.Majority of patients 41 (66.1%) were females and 20(32.3%) were housewives. Nine (14.5%) had previous 1attempt, 3 (4.8%) had previous 2 attempts and 10 (16.1%)had more than 2 previous attempts of DSH. Twenty seven(43.5%) of the patients had underlying depression, 5 (8.1%)had bipolar disorder, 4 (6.5%) had stress related disorder, 1(1.6%) had personality disorder and 1 (1.6%) had schizo-phrenia in their past medical history. Benzodiazepines werethe most commonly used drug found in 50 (80.7%) patients.Domestic problems were the most common reason of DSHseen in 36 (58%) patients. During hospital stay psychiatricconsult was generated in 90.3% cases. Forty three (69.4%)patients did not come for follow up in the psychiatry clinicafter 6 months. We conclude that depression is more common in house-wives and they have the tendency of DSH with drugs. Manypeople did not show up in the psychiatry clinic. A specialistConsultation-Liaison psychiatrist might improve the engage-ment with services besides improving the quality of care. Muhammad Shahid1, Junaid Patel2, Haider Naqvi3,Muhammad Shoaib Khan4Department of Medicine1,2 and Psychiatry3, Aga KhanUniversity, Karachi. References1. Pattison EM, Kahan J. The deliberate self-harm syndrome. Am J Psychiatry1983; 140:867-72.2. Khan MM, Prince M. Beyond rates: the tragedy of suicide in Pakistan.Tropical Doctor 2003; 33:67-9.3. Khalid N. Pattern of suicide: causes and methods employed. J Coll PhysiciansSurg Pak 2001; 11:759-61.4. World Health Organization. The World Health Report 2001. Mental Health:New Understanding, New Hope, Geneva: WHO 2001.5. Ahmed Z, Ahmed A, Mubeen SM. An audit of suicide in Karachi from 1995-2001. Ann Abbasi Shaheed Hosp 2003; 8:424-8.110 J Pak Med Assoc

Characteristics and outcome of patients with drug overdose at a tertiary care hospital in Karachi.

https://ecommons.aku.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1183&amp;context=pakistan_fhs_mc_emerg_med

Characteristics and outcome of patients with drug overdose at a tertiary care hospital in Karachi.

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