Farhat Bashir, Jamal Ara, Santosh Kumar.
Deliberate self poisoning at national poisoning control centre.
J Liaquat Uni Med Health Sci Jan ;13(1):03-8.

OBJECTIVE: To identify the risk factors contributing towards deliberate self-poisoning. METHODOLOGY: A prospective and descriptive study of patients admitted in National Poisoning Control Centre, Ward-5, Jinnah Post Graduate Medical Centre, Karachi conducted over six months. All adult patients presenting with deliberate self-poisoning were included in the study. The cases with accidental or homicidal poisoning and poisoning for purpose of theft and burglary were excluded from the study. The information was gathered using a questionnaire generated from World Health Organization IPCS INTOX “Recording Format for Toxic Exposure”.The data was analyzed on computer package SPSS ver. 14.0. The results were obtained as numbers and percentageswith means and standard deviation where applicable. RESULTS: 374 patients were analyzed during this period. The age group most frequent (54.3 %) is within the range of 15-24 years and 61.5 % of the subjects were male. Most of the patients were illiterate, with no employment and were unmarried. The toxic substance most commonly employed for attempted suicide was pesticide; it was taken most frequently orally, at home and during daytime. It was the first attempt for the majority of the subjects. Most subjects belonged to lower socioeconomic class and had no dependents. 34.5 % had history of drug abuse, 16.3 % had history of psychiatric illness. Few subjects had physical illness or history of suicide or parasuicide in family. CONCLUSION: Deliberate self-poisoning is a significant problem among the male youth in Pakistan. Lower socioeconomic status, changing social mores and stress contribute towards deliberate self-poisoning.

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