Demographic and Cost Analysis of Intoxication Cases Admitted to a University Hospital Emergency Service within a Year

AIM: We aimed to describe the demographic and etiological characteristics of drug-induced intoxication cases who were admitted to the adult emergency department of our hospital between 01.01.2017 and 31.12.2017 and how much they cost to the Social Security Institution.
MATERIAL AND METHOD: This was descriptive research, and the records of the patients who were admitted to the adult emergency service and diagnosed with drug intoxication between 01 January 2017 and 31 December 2017 were obtained from the automation system and analyzed retrospectively.
RESULTS: The data of 83 patients were evaluated in our study. 63.9% (n=53) of the patients were female and 36.1% (n=30) were male. Intoxications were most common in the 18-24 age group (48.2%; n=40). 92.8% (n=77) of the patients took the drug to commit suicide, and the majority of the intakes (60.2%; n=50) were due to single drug intake. The most common used drugs are antidepressants. The treatment costs increased significantly in the cases of suicidal intake (p=0.038) and multiple drug intake (p=0.035).
CONCLUSION: Most of the drug-induced intoxications occurred as a result of suicidal intake. An important part of the drugs used for this purpose are psychiatric drugs. Therefore, the presence of psychiatric symptoms should be investigated in patients diagnosed with drug intoxication and psychological support should be provided when necessary.