Acute drug overdose: one hospital's experience

A retrospective review of all patients admitted to an urban teaching hospital emergency department with the complaint of overdose, poisoning, or ingestion during a 10-month period was conducted. Analysis of these 82 episodes involving 69 individuals revealed: 1) a preponderance of women in the 20- to 40-year old range; 2) poly-drug character of the ingestion, with alcohol the most common secondary drug; 3) increased utilization of antidepressants and minor tranquilizers and decreased use of barbiturates; 4) non-concordance between drug history of ingested drug and toxicological findings. All patients survived and there was no apparent residual morbidity. Except for one patient requiring hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis, all patients were treated with aggressive supportive care.