A follow-up of self-poisoned patients

Over half the patients who were admitted to hospital after self-poisoning had seen their general practitioner in the previous month, and in half of those discharged from hospital no definite after-care arrangements were made. Opportunities for prevention of occurrences are being missed. Thorough follow-up of 135 such patients identified many non-medical problems, and over 80 per cent were helped by appropriate referral. Although only five of these patients made a further attempt during the period of review, the method of selection of patients does not allow definite conclusions to be made.