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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Elderly patients with deliberate self-poisoning treated in an Australian general hospital | | Author(s) | Stephen Ticehurst, Gregory Leigh Carter, Kerrie Ann Clover |
| Journal title | International Psychogeriatrics, vol 14, no 1, 2002 |
| Pages | pp 97-106 |
| Keywords | Suicide ; Drugs ; Poisoning ; Admission [hospitals] ; Australia. |
| Annotation | Older deliberate self-poisoning (DSP) patients differ in a number of important respects from younger patients. They have higher morbidity as a result of the DSP, and major depression plays a more important role. A prospective case series study of 2,667 patients presenting to the regional referral centre for poisoning in Newcastle, NSW, Australia between January 1991 and July 1998 was stratified into two groups: 110 aged 65+, and 2,557 aged 64 or less at time of admission. Logistic regression analysis found that the older DSP group was more likely to have a longer hospital stay, to have been prescribed "other" drugs (neither benzodiazepines, mood treatment drugs, nor paracetamol) before admission, to have been prescribed benzodiazepines, and to be diagnosed with major depression than the younger group. The older group was less likely to have ingested paracetamol or "other" drugs in the DSP episode. The strong relationship between benzodiazepine prescription and DSP in older people raises questions and possible prevention strategies. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-020808205 A |
| Classmark | EV: LLD: OLH: LD:QKH: 7YA |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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