title: [Death after earlier deliberate self-poisoning. A 10-year material from an intensive care unit].
abstract: In order to describe the survival after deliberate self-poisoning we followed up all patients discharged from an intensive care unit over a ten year period (1979-1988), where admission had been due to deliberate self-poisoning. The acute lethality has been described in a previous publication. Among 1487 patients discharged from the intensive care unit a total of 227 deaths were registered (median observation time: 55 months). According to national lifetables the expected number of deaths was 32. The deaths were classified as natural (44%), suicide (39%), accidental (9%) or other (8%). Among patients who committed suicide there were some significant (p < 0.01) characteristics: the majority of the patients were under 50 years of age, with an observation time of under two years and a history of prior psychiatric illness. The suicide rate was 1.3% per year of observation. We conclude that survivors of deliberate self-poisoning will remain at high risk of dying (especially suicide) in the future, and that useful clinical predictors of fatal outcome have yet to be determined.
authors.affiliation: Anaestesiologisk-intensiv afdeling V, Odense Sygehus.
authors.forename: N J
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Fisker
authors.forename: P K
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Andersen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002423:Cause of Death; D003718:Denmark / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007362:Intensive Care Units / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010359:Patient Readmission / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011041:Poisoning / Q000401:mortality*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D013405:Suicide / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D013406:Suicide, Attempted / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013997:Time Factors; D000092864:Suicide Prevention
vernacular_title: Dødsfald efter tidligere bevidst selvforgiftning. Et tiårs materiale fra en intensivafdeling.