Self-poisoning: outcome and complications in the community hospital.

One hundred sixty cases of self-poisoning of patients aged 15 years and older were treated on the wards of the four community hospitals of Lansing, Michigan, in 1981. Most cases (91 percent) were intentional and represented suicide attempts. The complication rate was 13.8 percent and the overdose-related mortality rate 0.6 percent. Aspiration pneumonia was the most common complication, followed by respiratory failure and seizures. No patient with a level of consciousness stage 0 or 1 in the emergency room had a major overdose-related complication with permanent sequelae, and this group represented 80 percent of the cases. One possible guideline for managing the self-poisoner is level of consciousness in the emergency room.