Background
Drug overdose is a one of common situations in emergency department (ED). We investigate gender difference and predisposing factors of overdose in emergency department (ED).
Materials and Methods
We retrospectively analyzed overdose reports from January 2018 to August 2019. We selected study cases by the ICD-10 coding system which include T36 to T50. A total of 299 overdose reports were collected during this period. Data were collected including Glasgow coma scale and vital signs on arrival (including body temperature, heart rate, systolic blood pressure, and diastolic blood pressure, gender, age, marital status, arrival time, season on admission, previous suicide attempts, psychiatric history, related comorbidities, recent argues, categories of overdose with or without concurrent ethanol use, length of hospital stay and survival to discharge were analyzed.
Results
The 196 enrolled patients ranged in age from 14 to 92 years (mean ± standard deviation (S.D.): 39.2 ± 18.3). Of them, male intentional overdose patients were 8.1 years older than female ones (45.3 ± 19.5 vs. 37.2 ± 17.5, respectively; p<0.05)
Most intentional overdose cases occurred during the Spring season (n=63, 32.1%), especially in male patients (n=28, 57.1%; p<0.001). About 11.2% (22/196) and 2% (4/196) of total patients hospitalized to ward and intensive care units, respectively. Length of hospital stay is 2 ± 4.1 days.
Conclusion
The most top three kinds of substance overdose are benzodiazepine (42.9%), mixed medications (32.1%) and acetaminophen (6.1%). Physicians should notify the centers of suicide prevention to pay concern about who are middle-aged male, facing conflicts, especially in the spring.