Cases of acute poisoning admitted to Clinical Hospital Merkur in Zagreb in 1999.

This paper describes 170 cases of acute poisoning in 60 men and 110 women admitted to emergency room from January through November 1999. Ninety-eight percent of acute poisonings were self-inflicted, and 90% occurred at home. Drugs were used in 134 (79%) suicide attempts. Eighty-one acute poisonings were caused by benzodiazepines (48%) and 19 by antidepressants (11%). Alcohol intoxication, alone or combined with the intake of psychoactive drug (28 cases, 16%) predominated in men. Cocaine was the most common narcotic drug, taken by 31 patients (16%). Other acute poisonings involved ecstasy (4 cases), CO (6 cases), and HCl inhalation (2 cases). Previous suicide attempts due to depression were found in 68 patients (40%). Fifty patients (29%) were comatose on admission, 24 were transferred to intensive care, and 3 died. Data such as these can be very useful for handling self-inflicted acute poisonings and for planning long-term health care activities.