title: Cases of acute poisoning admitted to Clinical Hospital Merkur in Zagreb in 1999.
abstract: This paper describes 170 cases of acute poisoning in 60 men and 110 women admitted to emergency room from January through November 1999. Ninety-eight percent of acute poisonings were self-inflicted, and 90% occurred at home. Drugs were used in 134 (79%) suicide attempts. Eighty-one acute poisonings were caused by benzodiazepines (48%) and 19 by antidepressants (11%). Alcohol intoxication, alone or combined with the intake of psychoactive drug (28 cases, 16%) predominated in men. Cocaine was the most common narcotic drug, taken by 31 patients (16%). Other acute poisonings involved ecstasy (4 cases), CO (6 cases), and HCl inhalation (2 cases). Previous suicide attempts due to depression were found in 68 patients (40%). Fifty patients (29%) were comatose on admission, 24 were transferred to intensive care, and 3 died. Data such as these can be very useful for handling self-inflicted acute poisonings and for planning long-term health care activities.
authors.affiliation: Clinical Hospital Merkur, Zagreb, Croatia.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Prkacin
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Vujanić
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Dabo
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Palcić
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Naumovski-Mihalić
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D017523:Croatia / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011041:Poisoning / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology