[Epidemiology of acute drug poisoning in Switzerland]

In the last five years some 8 in 100 000 people in Switzerland died by poisoning. The majority (74-82%) were suicides, but 14-20% were classified as accidental death. About 40% of all cases involved poisoning by drugs. The most frequent fatal poisons were hypnotics. Among the serious cases reported to the Swiss Toxicological Information Center or admitted to hospital (VESKA statistics), poisonings by combinations of drugs were the most frequent, followed by overdoses of sleeping tablets, analgesics and psychoactive drugs. In children the most frequent causes were analgesics and sleeping tablets. The bromocarbamide poisonings of the early seventies were largely replaced by overdoses of benzodiazepine sleeping preparations and prescription-free barbiturate- and diphenhydramine-containing preparations. In Swiss hospitals the mortality from poisoning by drugs was 1.5%.