Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T12:35:07.222Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Hospital Admissions for Adverse Effects of Medicinal Agents (Mainly Self-Poisoning) Among Adolescents in the Oxford Region

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Keith Hawton
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Warneford Hospital, Oxford OX3 7JX
Michael Goldacre
Affiliation:
Department of Community Medicine and General Practice, University of Oxford, 8 Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3QN

Summary

Hospital statistics for episodes coded as ‘adverse effects of medicinal agents' were used to study deliberate self-poisoning among people aged 12–20 years in the Oxford Region. Admission rates rose sharply from the age of 12 years, more so for females than males, up to the age of 16 years in females and 18 years in males. Analgesics, antipyretics and psychotropic drugs were the agents most commonly used by both sexes and accounted for three-quarters of all admissions. Admission rates varied from year to year, but increased overall between 1974 and 1979, notably among people under 16 years of age. Admissions for ‘adverse effects of medicinal agents' accounted for 4.7 per cent of all general hospital admissions among people aged 12–20 years.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1982 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adelstein, A. & Mardon, C. (1975) Suicides 1961–74. In Population Trends, No. 2, London: HMSO Google Scholar
Aitken, R. C. B., Buglass, D. & Kreitman, N. (1969) The changing pattern of attempted suicide in Edinburgh, 1962–67. British Journal of Preventive and Social Medicine, 23, 111–15.Google ScholarPubMed
Alderson, M. R. (1974) Self-poisoning—what is the future? Lancet, i, 1040–3.Google Scholar
Bancroft, J. H. J., Skrimshire, A. M., Reynolds, F., Simkin, S. & Smith, J. (1975) Self-poisoning and self-injury in the Oxford Area: Epidemiological aspects 1969–73. British Journal of Preventive and Social Medicine, 29, 170–7.Google Scholar
Gibbons, J. S., Elliott, J., Urwin, P. & Gibbons, J. L. (1978) The urban environment and deliberate self-poisoning trends in Southampton 1972–77. Social Psychiatry, 13, 159–66.Google Scholar
Hawton, K., Fagg, J., Marsack, P. & Wells, P. (1982) Deliberate self-poisoning and self-injury in the Oxford Area: 1972–80. Social Psychiatry, (in press).Google Scholar
Hawton, K., O'Grady, J., Osborn, M. & Cole, D. (1982) Adolescents who take overdoses: Their characteristics, problems and contacts with helping agencies. British Journal of Psychiatry, 140, 118–23.Google Scholar
World Health Organisation (1969) International Classification of Diseases: Eighth Revision. WHO: Geneva.Google Scholar
World Health Organisation (1977) International Classification of Diseases: Ninth Revision. WHO: Geneva.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.