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| Authors | R Messina-Fenech J Mifsud |
| Abstract | Paracetamol has been in clinical use for some forty years. Worldwide consumption exceeds 25 000 tons and international published data has shown a substantial increase in the number of self-poisoning patients being referred to district poison units. The aim of this study was to seek information regarding pharmaceutical overdose cases in Malta and to fit paracetamol into this picture. Data was obtained for overdose cases for seven years between 1995 and 2001. The main types of drugs responsible for drug overdose deaths in Malta were narcotics and psychodysleptics (39.2%), anti-epileptic, sedative hypnotic, anti parkinsonian drugs and psychotropics (20.3%), some gases and vapours (18.9%), alcohol (8.1%), anti-pyretics, anti-rheumatics and non-opoid analgesics (4.1%) and other and unspecified drugs (9.3%). The majority of the drug overdose victims (70.3%) were between 20 and 49 years of age. 78.4% were male. Most of the patients who were admitted to hospital because of drug overdose (66.7%) were between 15 and 44 years while the male to female ratio of admissions was approximately 1:1. From the data collected, paracetamol overdose in Malta appears to be less common when compared to the data available from other countries such as UK where eg. 42% of all overdoses in Oxford in 1990 were due to paracetamol. |
Published in: | |
| Journal | Malta Medical Journal |
| Volume | 15 Issue 1-2/suppl. 2003 |
| Pages | - |
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| Key words | overdose, death, drug |