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The British Journal of Psychiatry (2005) 187: 583-584
© 2005 The Royal College of Psychiatrists

SHORT REPORTS

Epidemiology of intentional self-poisoning in rural Sri Lanka

Michael Eddleston

South Asian Clinical Toxicology Research Collaboration,Centre for Tropical Medicine, University of Oxford,UK and Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka

David Gunnell

Department of Social Medicine,University of Bristol,UK

Ayanthi Karunaratne

Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Colombo

Dhammika de Silva

Office of the Provincial Director of Health Services, North Central Province, Anuradhapura

M. H. Rezvi Sheriff

Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka

Nick A. Buckley

Department of Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology, Australian National University Medical School, Australian Capital Territory, Australia

Correspondence: Dr M. Eddleston, Department of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, PO Box 271, 25 Kynsey Road, Colombo 8, Sri Lanka. E-mail: eddlestonm{at}eureka.lk

Declaration of interest None. Funding detailed in Acknowledgements.

We investigated the epidemiology of intentional self-poisoning in rural Sri Lanka by prospectively recording 2189 admissions to two secondary hospitals. Many patients were young (median age 25 years), male (57%) and used pesticides (49%). Of the 198 who died,156 were men (case fatality 12.4%) and 42 were women (4.5%). Over half of female deaths were in those under 25 years old; male deaths were spread more evenly across age groups. Oleander and paraquat caused 74% of deaths in people under 25 years old; thereafter organophosphorous pesticides caused many deaths. Although the age pattern of self-poisoning was similar to that of industrialised countries, case fatality was more than 15 times higher and the pattern of fatal self-poisoning different.




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eLetters:

Read all eLetters

Self Poisoning in Srilanka
Sunny T Varghese, et al.
BJP Online, 21 Dec 2005 [Full text]
Re: Self Poisoning in Srilanka
Michael Eddleston, et al.
BJP Online, 4 Jan 2006 [Full text]