Factors affecting the decision to hospitalise children admitted to the emergency department due to non-fatal suicide attempts by pills

Abstract

Objective: Suicide attempts (SAs) in the paediatric age group represent an important cause of morbidity and mortality. Our aim was to examine the factors affecting the decision to hospitalize children with a diagnosis of non-fatal SA by pills.

Methods: Children <18 years of age admitted with SA by pills during 2014 were evaluated retrospectively. Patients were divided into two groups: Group-I comprised hospitalised patients and Group-II included those who were discharged from the PED. These two groups were compared in terms of clinical and demographic characteristics recorded upon PED admission.

Results: A total of 196 patients were included in the study. The number of pills taken for self-poisoning in Group-I (median: 20 pills) was higher than that in Group-II (median: 12 pills) (p < 0.001), and the rate of pathological findings during the first paediatric psychiatric consultation was higher in Group-I (91.1%) than in the Group-II (54.8%) (p < 0.001).

Conclusion: Factors affecting the disposition decision in cases of children who performed non-fatal SA via pills included the amount of medication taken for the suicide attempt and the presence of psychiatric disorders, as determined by a paediatric psychiatrist during the acute phase.

doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.12669/pjms.323.9765

How to cite this:Gokalp G, Anil M, Bal A, Bicilioglu Y, Can FK, Anil AB. Factors affecting the decision to hospitalise children admitted to the emergency department due to non-fatal suicide attempts by pills. Pak J Med Sci. 2016;32(3):731-735.   doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.12669/pjms.323.9765

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.