title: Self poisoning in children: a ten year survey.
abstract: All children, 17 years of age or less, admitted to the Children's Hospital of Hacettepe University Medical Center in Ankara during the period of 1975 to 1984 with a diagnosis of poisoning were studied. Of the 1188 cases reviewed, mode of poisoning was deliberate self-poisoning in a total of 152 cases (12.8%). Drugs accounted for 95.4%, insecticides for 3.9% and carbon monoxide for only 0.7% of the overall suicide attempts or gestures. Analgesics and tranquilizers were the most common agents encountered, however the major drug used for self-poisoning was a barbiturate containing analgesic, Optalidon. The incidence of self-poisoning was 79.0% in the age group 13-17 of the overall poison admissions and in all of the age groups self-poisoning showed a significant (p less than 0.001) sex difference with definite prevalence of girls.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008499:Medical Records; D011041:Poisoning / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012621:Seasons; D012737:Sex Factors; D013406:Suicide, Attempted / Q000453:epidemiology*; D014421:Turkey