Analysis of the Year 2007 Data of Dokuz Eylul University Drug and Poison Information Center, Turkey

Objective: We investigated the etiological and demographical characteristics of exposures to drugs and poisons reported to the Dokuz Eylul University Drug and Poison Information Center (DPIC), in 2007. Material and Methods: The data regarding demographic details of the cases and involving substance(s), route and reason for the exposure, date, time, site and circumstances of poisonings are reviewed retrospectively. Beside these, clinical effects of the incidents, the recommendations by DPIC and outcomes of the patients were also evaluated from the standard data forms. Descriptive statistics, contingency tables and Pearson Chi-square test was performed to analyze the data. Results: DPIC received 2576 calls in 2007 and most of them were related to poisoning incidents A vast majority (97%) of these calls was made from the health care facilities and 73.3 % of them were from Izmir. Most of the incidents were intentional attempts (65.5%) in nature and there was a female predominance (chi(2)=385.03, P<0.001). Rate of unintentional exposures was significantly higher in 0-12 year-old children than in the 13-18 year-old teenagers (chi(2)=374.59, P<0.001). Ingestion was the most common route of exposure (92.7%). Medications were the predominant substances in the exposures (72.5%) followed by chemicals, metals, cosmetics (4.7%) and alcohol (4.7%). Analgesics (15.5%) and antidepressants (13.5%) were leading drugs involved in these events, particularly paracetamol and amitriptyline (1118 and 3.9%)respectively. Recommended treatments by DPIC included activated charcoal (24.5%), supportive care (23.1%), gastric lavage (15.0%), antidotes (2.2%) and skin decontamination. There were two mortalities (0.08%) associated with a scorpion sting and carbon monoxide inhalation. Conclusion: Analgesics and antidepressants were found to be the main causes of poisoning exposures in the review of DPIC reports. Research studies can be accomplished in this field with the assistance of national poisoning database system which compiles the information gained from all poison information centers in Turkey.