1 The 91 patients over the age of 10 (57 women and 32 men) with severe self-poisoning admitted to the ICU of a general hospital in Barcelona during the period 1974-1980 have been retrospectively studied.
2 Previous suicidal attempts have been identified among 32 patients; 26 patients presented a history of personality disorders, and 19 had a neurological disease, a chronic physical illness, or a history of alcoholism.
3 Sedative-hypnotic drugs were involved in about half the number of cases, and one fifth of total cases were due to tricyclic antidepressants and phenothiazines. Paracetamol was only involved in 2 cases, and heroin in another 2 cases.
4 Many of the most severe morbidity manifestations were related to overdoses by intermediate-acting barbiturates. Two out of a total of 5 deaths were related to butalbitone overdose. Butalbitone had been ingested as a fixed-dose combination containing butalbitone, propyphenazone, and caffeine, which is freely dispensed as an analgesic in Spain.
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3.
Garella, S. & Lorch, J.A. (1980). Hemoperfusion for acute intoxications. Clin. Toxicol., 17, 515-527.
4.
Greenblatt, D.J., Allen, M.D., Harmatz, J., Noel, B. & Shader, R. (1979). Overdosage with pentobarbital and secobarbital: assessment of factors related to outcome. J. Clin. Pharmacol. , 19, 758-768.
Harvey, S.C. (1980). Hypnotics and sedatives. In The pharmacological basis of therapeutics, eds L. S. Goodman, & A. Gilman, pp. 339-375. New York: Macmillan.
7.
Hollister, L. (1978). Clinical pharmacology of psychotherapeutic drugs . New York: Churchill Livingstone .
8.
Johns, M.W. (1977). Self-poisoning with barbiturates in England and Wales during 1959-1974. Br. med. J., 1, 1128-1130.
9.
Laporte, J.R., Capella, D., Gisbert, R., Martin, M.L., Porta, M. (1981a). Methodological problems in drug utilization studies with fixed-dose combinations. Meeting of the WHO Drug Utilization Research Group, ICP/DPM 002/15. World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe. Copenhagen .
10.
Laporte, J.R., Capella, D., Gisbert, R., Porta, M., Frati, M.E., Garcia Santesmases, M.P., Garcia Inesta, A. (1981b). The utilization of sedative hypnotic drugs in Spain in Epidemiological impact ofpsychotropic drugs, eds. G. Tognoni, C. Bellantuono , & M. Lader, pp.137-149. Amsterdam : Elsevier/North-Holland.
11.
Laporte, J.R., Capella, D., Porta, M. & Frati, M.E.Patterns of use of psychotropic drugs in Spain in an international perspective . In Clinical Pharmacology in Psychiatry, ed. E. Usdin, S. G. Dahl, & L. F. Gram, London: Macmillan.
12.
Mayo, J.A. (1974). Psychopharmacological roulette: a follow-up study of patients hospitalized for drug overdose. Am. J. Pub. Hlth. , 64, 616-617.
13.
McCulloch, D.K., Sangster, G. & Lawson, A.H. (1981). Can recurrent self-poisoning be prevented?Practitioner, 225, 879-882.
14.
Ministerio De Trabajo, Sanidad Y Seguridad Social. (1981). Real Decreto 2730/1981 de 19 de octubre sobre registro de especialidades farmacéuticas publicitarias. Boletín Oficial del Estado, 282, 27655.
15.
Ninet, J., Polidori, M., Bouletreau, P., Ducluzeau, R. & Rouzioux, J.M. (1981). Modifications de l'intoxication barbiturique aigüe volontaire au cours des dix dernières années. Nouv. Presse Med., 10, 893 - 896.
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Piper, K. & Griner, P. (1974). Suicide attempts with drug overdose. Arch. Intern. Med., 134, 703-706.
17.
Poklis, A. & Gantner, G.E. (1981). Drug deaths in St. Louis City and County: a brief survey, 1977-1979. Clin. Toxicol.,18, 141-147.
18.
Robinson, A.E. & McDowall, R.D. (1979). The distribution of amylobarbitone, butobarbitone, pentobarbitone and quinalbarbitone and their hydroxylated metabolites in man. J. Pharm. Pharmacol., 31, 357-365.
19.
Sangster, G., McCulloch, D.K. & Lawson, A.H. (1981). Medically serious self-poisoning in West Fife, 1970-1979. Clin. Toxicol., 18, 1005-1010.
20.
Volans, G., Mitchell, G., Proudfoot, A., Shanks, R. & Woodcock, J. (1981). National Poisons Information Services: report and comment, 1980. Br. med. J., 282, 1613-1615.
