Analysis of 2011-2020 intentional drug poisoning in children and adolescents

Purpose We aimed to investigate the changing trends in intentional drug poisoning among pediatric and adolescent patients over the past 10 years. Methods A retrospective study was conducted on patients younger than 20 years who visited an academic hospital emergency department (ED) in Incheon, Korea, from January 2011 through December 2020. The study focused on patients who responded with “self-harm or suicide” in the ED-based Injury In-depth Surveillance, and whose injury mechanism was drug poisoning. Exclusion criteria were unintentional injuries and the ingestion of substances other than drugs. To describe the trend over the decade, we used the number of events/100,000 ED annual visits of the database. Results A total of 3,388 cases with a median age of 17 years (interquartile range, 15-18 years) were included. The most frequently ingested drugs were acetaminophen (27.8%), followed by benzodiazepines (15.2%), antidepressants (14.1%), other sedatives and hypnotics (13.4%), and antipsychotics (8.3%). As for the events/100,000 ED annual visits, benzodiazepines showed the biggest increase, from 7.6 to 80.2 cases. Similarly, antidepressants increased from 10.2 to 71.1 cases, and antipsychotics from 3.6 to 53.7 cases. Conclusion Intentional drug poisoning has increased over the past 10 years, particularly in benzodiazepines, antidepressants, and antipsychotics. It is advisable to establish injury prevention strategies according to patients’ characteristics and ingested drugs.