Author(s): Savithiri Ratnapalan1 and Shafiqa Al Sharif
Objectives: To evaluate incidence, motives and clinical outcomes of pre-teens and adolescents presenting to a pediatric emergency department with substance ingestions. Methods: A retrospective chart review was conducted of patients aged 10 to 18 year department presenting with substance ingestion, overdose or poisoning to a tertiary care pediatric emergency between January1, -2009 to December 31,2010. Demographic information, type of ingestions, motives and outcome information were collected and analyzed. Results: One hundred patients with a mean age of 15 (STD deviation 2) years were seen during the study period (70 females and 30 males). Psychiatric conditions were present in 50% of the patients (n=50). The most common reason for ingestion was intentional attempted suicide (n=58) followed by intentional abuse (n=30), intentional misuse (n=5) and unintentional ingestions (n=7 of all the ingestions 39% (n=39) needed admission to hospital of whom 2 were admitted to the intensive care unit. Suspected suicides accounted for 92% of admissions. There were no deaths. Conclusions: Vigilance by parents and maintaining open communication with their children while monitoring for self-harm behaviors is important in adolescents age group. Health care professionals should check for mental illness and attempted suicide in adolescents who present with drug or substance ingestions.
