PurposeMany elderly patients arrive at the emergency department (ED) complaining of deliberate self-poisoning (DSP). This study determined the poisoning severity of elderly patients who committed DSP.MethodsA study was performed with… Click to show full abstract
PurposeMany elderly patients arrive at the emergency department (ED) complaining of deliberate self-poisoning (DSP). This study determined the poisoning severity of elderly patients who committed DSP.MethodsA study was performed with 1329 patients (> 15 years of age) who were treated for DSP at two EDs between January 2010 and December 2016. We classified these patients into two groups based on age (an elderly group ≥ 65 years of age and a nonelderly group). Information was collected on age, sex, cause, ingestion time, drug type, suicide attempt history, initial poisoning severity score (PSS), final PSS, outcome, etc.ResultsIn total, 242 (18.2%) patients were included in the elderly group, of whom 211 (86.9%) were treated for a first suicide attempt. Admission to the intensive-care unit (ICU) (43.8% vs. 25.5%) and endotracheal intubation (16.1% vs. 4.9%) occurred more frequently in the elderly group than in the nonelderly group (p < 0.001). The frequencies of initial severe PSSs (3 and 4) in the elderly group were 9.1% (N = 22) and 1.2% (N = 3), respectively. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the ICU admission of DSP patients was significantly associated with being elderly (OR of 1.47, 95% CI 1.04–2.09, p = 0.029) and with having a GCS of < 13 (OR of 2.67, 95% CI 1.99–3.57, p < 0.001) and an initial PSS of (3,4) (OR of 3.66, 95% CI 2.14–6.26, p < 0.001). In addition, the presence of underlying diseases (coronary heart disease and cerebrovascular disease) yielded high ORs [(OR of 13.13, 95% CI 2.80–61.57, p = 0.001), (OR of 7.34, 95% CI 1.38–39.09, p = 0.020)].ConclusionElderly patients who visited the ED for DSP exhibited overall more severe PSSs and poorer in-hospital prognosis than did nonelderly DSP patients.
               
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