Epidemiology of intentional self-poisoning in rural Sri Lanka

Michael Eddleston*, David Gunnell, Ayanthi Karunaratne, Dhammika De Silva, M. H.Rezvi Sheriff, Nick A. Buckley

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    111 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    We investigated the epidemiology of intentional self-poisoning in rural Sri Lanka by prospectively recording 2189 admissions to two secondary hospitals. Many patients were young (median age 25 years), male (57%) and used pesticides (49%). Of the 198 who died, 156 were men (case fatality 12.4%) and 42 were women (4.5%). Over half of female deaths were in those under 25 years old; male deaths were spread more evenly across age groups. Oleander and paraquat caused 74% of deaths in people under 25 years old; thereafter organophosphorous pesticides caused many deaths. Although the age pattern of self-poisoning was similar to that of industrialised countries, case fatality was more than 15 times higher and the pattern of fatal self-poisoning different.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)583-584
    Number of pages2
    JournalBritish Journal of Psychiatry
    Volume187
    Issue numberDEC.
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Dec 2005

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