Etiological and demographical characteristics of acute adult poisoning in Ankara, Turkey

Abstract

1. The aim of this retrospective study was to evaluate etiological and demographical characteristics of acute adult poisoning patients during 1 year at a university hospital in Ankara, Turkey. 2. Two-hundred and twenty-eight adults (of which 180 were suicidal poisoning cases) were admitted to the emergency center with acute poisonings. This was 0.7% of all emergency admissions. The female-to-male ratio was 3:1, and the majority of patients (63.6%) were below the age of 25 years. 3. Drugs were the major cause in 75. 9% of the cases, followed by inhalation of gases (17.6%), food (2. 6%), corrosives (2.2%), pesticides (0.9%), and alcohol (0.9%). Analgesics were the most common cause of drug poisoning (29.7% of all substances). There were no fatalities. 4. It is important to realize that this study is a hospital-based study, and hence it may be considered difficult to draw conclusions for the whole population of Turkey. However, we consider that the reason for such a high ratio of analgesic poisoning is probably due to the habit of extensive analgesic prescribing in Ankara, which is the capital of Turkey.