מתוך medicontext.co.il
WESTPORT, CT (Reuters Health) – Despite an overall decline in poisonings among children and adolescents, teenage girls remain at risk of suicide from overdoses of drugs, such as pain relievers and antidepressants, study findings reveal.
The findings underscore the need for targeted suicide prevention efforts that include parents, teachers and doctors, according to Dr. F. Gauvin of the University of Washington in Seattle and colleagues.
Their report, published in the October issue of the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, documents a decrease in the number of hospitalizations caused by poisonings among children from birth to 18 years of age in Washington state from 1987 to 1997.
Among those hospitalized, teenagers accounted for about three quarters of patients, and teenage girls were 2.5 times more likely than boys to be admitted to a hospital because of poisoning.
Attempted suicide was the most common cause of poisoning, accounting for 47% of cases, according to hospital data. "Because female teenagers continue as the highest risk group for a suicide attempt by ingestion of pharmacologic agents, prevention efforts should be targeted to this population," Dr. Gauvin and colleagues write.
The investigators found that pharmaceutical agents were used by 80% of teenagers hospitalized for poisoning. Pain relievers were used in roughly one third of teenage poisonings, followed by antidepressants and drugs, such as tranquilizers and sedatives.
Younger children were more likely to ingest non-pharmaceutical substances such as cleaning fluids and solvents, the report indicates.
According to the researchers, preventive measures and the creation of poison centers have resulted in a sharp decline in the number of child and teenage deaths caused by poisoning over the past 50 years. In 1950, more than 800 US children died from accidental or intentional poisonings compared with fewer than 50 in 1997.
"Nevertheless, acute intoxication remains an important cause of illness in children," Dr. Gauvin's team concludes.
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