| Abstrakt: |
Suicidal or deliberate self harm by poisoning is an important cause for mortality and morbidity in any given population. This study is undertaken to study the profile of intentional self poisoning cases admitted in A.J. Hospital and Research Centre, Mangalore, India retrospectively in terms of number of cases each year from 2003 to 2009, age, gender, occupation, religion, time of day, month, types of poison used, mortality, duration of hospital stay/survival, reasons, suicide note kept or not, number of previous attempts so as to help the current health system in tackling this health hazard. Observational, record based cross sectional study of intentional self poisoning cases (total=235) admitted in the corporate section of medical college (A. J. Hospital and Research Centre) from January 2003 to December 2009 using case sheets was done. In our study we found Hindus, males, in the 21 to 30 age group forming majority of the suicidal poisoning cases. Majority of the patients took poison during the onset of monsoon, beginning of month or end of the month and end of the day. 13% mortality was found in these cases. The average duration of stay in the hospital was for 3 to 4 days. People involved in agriculture and related work, people with depression and other mental illness were affected the most. Insecticide poisoning was the most popular amongst all, followed by therapeutic drugs and rat poison. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
