Comparison of clinical characteristics of intentional vs accidental drowning patients

Drowning may happen by accident or as a method of committing suicide. The aim of this study was to determine some characteristics of drowning patients who committed intentionally.

A retrospective review was performed on 462 patients who visited the emergency department complaining of drowning between January 1998 and October 2011. Of these patients, we only included the patients for whom the cause could be identified. Age, sex, cause, time of drowning, season, mechanism, cardiopulmonary resuscitation performance, body temperature, alcohol ingestion, history of previous suicide attempts, outcome, and other characteristics were collected.

A total of 380 patients were included. Among them, 282 (74.2%) had drowned themselves intentionally, and they were older than those who had drowned accidentally (median age, 35.0 years [25.0-49.0 years] vs 26.5 years [19.0-35.5 years], P < .001) and showed lower body temperature (below 34°C, 32.1% vs 12.2%, P = .027). Ninety-four cases (33.3%) jumped off the river from a bridge, and 185 (65.6%) walked into the river from the riverside. In the intentional group, 59 (20.9%) had depressive disorder in their history. The rate of death showed no clinical difference (19.5% vs 16.3%, P = .487), but more males died in the accidental group (61.8% vs 93.8%, P = .015).

Intentional drowning happened more in older subjects and presented lower initial body temperature. Walking from the riverside happened more often than jumping off a bridge. More males died of drowning regardless of intentionality.