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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Self-poisoning in older adults
— patterns of drug ingestion and clinical outcomes | | Author(s) | Martin W Doak, Andrew C Nixon, David J Lupton |
| Journal title | Age and Ageing, vol 38, no 4, July 2009 |
| Pages | pp 407-410 |
| Source | http://www.ageing.oxfordjournals.org |
| Keywords | Suicide ; Drugs ; Poisoning ; Admission [hospitals] ; Scotland. |
| Annotation | Self-poisoning accounts for a substantial proportion of acute medical hospital presentations, but has been poorly characterised in older adults. This Scottish retrospective observational study sought to determine the agents ingested by older adults presenting to hospital accident and emergency (A&E) after drug overdose, and to compare clinical outcomes to younger patients. During the study period (2004-2007), there were 8,059 admissions, including 4,632 women (57.5%). This included a subgroup of 361 patients (4.5%) who were age 60+. This subgroup was more likely to require hospital stay, transfer to a critical care and had higher mortality. A higher proportion of older patients required transfer to a psychiatric unit or to a general medical ward than younger adults. Older adults that presented to hospital after drug overdose had ingested different drugs compared to younger patients, possibly due to different prescribing patterns, and had a poorer outcome. The use of drugs associated with significant toxicity should be avoided in older patients at risk of self-harm. (KJ/RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-090728210 A |
| Classmark | EV: LLD: OLH: LD:QKH: 9A |
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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