title: Drug overdosage and other poisoning in Hong Kong--the Prince of Wales Hospital (Shatin) experience.
abstract: From 1988 to 1991, 732 patients (91.1% Chinese) were admitted to four general medical wards at the Prince of Wales Hospital in Hong Kong with acute poisoning. The patients were predominantly female (68.9%) and relatively young (86.3% below the age of 40). Further analysis of 655 patients indicates that the vast majority of patients (96%) were admitted after self-poisoning with drugs or chemicals while 4% of cases were due to accidental poisoning. The main agents used by the former group included hypnotics/sedatives (33.1%), household products (15.7%), and analgesics (13.7%). There were nine deaths (1.4%). When compared to other Western countries, two important variations in the pattern of acute poisoning were seen. A substantial proportion of drugs ingested by our patients were not precisely identified. 'Dettol', a household product, was commonly used for self-poisoning in Hong Kong. Territory-wide studies of longer duration are needed to provide the physicians in Hong Kong with much needed information on the incidence and the pattern of acute poisoning.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Prince of Wales Hospital, Shatin, N.T.
authors.forename: T Y
authors.initials: TY
authors.lastname: Chan
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Critchley
authors.forename: M T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Chan
authors.forename: C M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Yu
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D062787:Drug Overdose / Q000453:epidemiology*; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal / Q000506:poisoning; D005260:Female; D005742:Gasoline / Q000506:poisoning; D006723:Hong Kong / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D006993:Hypnotics and Sedatives / Q000506:poisoning; D013287:Illicit Drugs / Q000506:poisoning; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010575:Pesticides / Q000506:poisoning; D011041:Poisoning / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013406:Suicide, Attempted / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
chemical_list: D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal; D005742:Gasoline; D006993:Hypnotics and Sedatives; D013287:Illicit Drugs; D010575:Pesticides