Drug and Chemical Poisoning Patterns in Makkah Region, Saudi Arabia

This research reveals that drugs and chemicals poisoning have been reported to have severe and fetal side effects on health provided by doctors in statistics and periodical records. This work aimed to explore the interaction among drug and chemical poisoning patterns concerning risk factors, especially gender, age, exposure circumstances, and outcomes in the Makkah region. A retrospective analysis was of clinical drug and chemical poisoning cases (2014–2015). The data were retrieved from the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, Ministry of Health, Makkah, Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Arabia Ministry of Health received 1216 reports of drug and chemical poisoning during 2014–2015 in Makkah. This study has found that, the most affected gender was that of males (65%). The most affected age category with drug poisoning was over 15 years old (67%), but under 5 years for chemical poisoning (60%). The majority of drug poisoning cases are unknown drugs (42%), which accidental poisoning was a minority compared with other drug causes (27%). Chemical poisoning accidents were the majority causes of the recorded cases (63%). We reported healthy recovered without complications for most patients from drug and chemical poisoning (85–95%). Antidotes were administered in only (5%) of cases, and fatalities were reported (0.5% of cases). We have shown a flagrant increase in the number of people poisoned by drugs and chemical agents during 2015. Increases poisoning cases involved both genders and all studied age categories, especially males over 15 years up to 25 (drugs) and < 5 years (chemicals). Most cases were accidental (chemicals) and reported healthy recovery for most patients.

External study possibilities of a dead body solution about the death occurrence from psychotropic and narcotic drug poisoning

Background: Poisoning with psychotropic and narcotic substances is still leads to the general structure of fatal intoxications. A decreased traditional psychotropic and narcotic drug fatal poisoning and an increased new synthetic psychoactive substances and combined consumption are recorded in the country. Aims: This study aimed to study the dynamics of drug poisoning incidence according to the annual report data in 20172020 in the Krasnodar territory and establish their predominant etiology. Analyze the medical literature and identify the data mostly described during the external examination that suggests narcotic drug exposure possibility of the body. Comparison of the literature and external examination results of the corpse from the Expert Conclusions (Acts of forensic medical research) to further use the signs to create a profile of the suspected poisoned corpse with narcotic substances. Material and methods: The study material includes the annual reports of the State Budgetary Healthcare Institution Bureau SME of the Ministry of Health of the Krasnodar Territory in 20172020, archival medical documentation autopsy reports in cases of death from narcotic substances; domestic and foreign literary sources. Results: In the Krasnodar Territory, opiates account for a large proportion of drug deaths. Psychotropic and narcotic drug intake is often (up to 30%) combined with alcohol consumption. The study showed that forensic pathology rarely uses external signs that make up the profile of a corpse suspected of drug poisoning at the initial stage. The most common signs (in 50% of cases) were: injection traces, cyanotic and flushed face, conjunctival hemorrhages, and whitish-pink foam in the nose or mouth openings. Others were not given due attention. Conclusion: The research topic dictates the need for further study and problem development, accumulation, and systematization of the obtained material for subsequent use.

Fatal opioid overdoses during and shortly after hospital admissions in England: A case-crossover study

Background Hospital patients who use illicit opioids such as heroin may use drugs during an admission or leave the hospital in order to use drugs. There have been reports of patients found dead from drug poisoning on the hospital premises or shortly after leaving the hospital. This study examines whether hospital admission and discharge are associated with increased risk of opioid-related death. Methods and findings We conducted a case-crossover study of opioid-related deaths in England. Our study included 13,609 deaths between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2019 among individuals aged 18 to 64. For each death, we sampled 5 control days from the period 730 to 28 days before death. We used data from the national Hospital Episode Statistics database to determine the time proximity of deaths and control days to hospital admissions. We estimated the association between hospital admission and opioid-related death using conditional logistic regression, with a reference category of time neither admitted to the hospital nor within 14 days of discharge. A total of 236/13,609 deaths (1.7%) occurred following drug use while admitted to the hospital. The risk during hospital admissions was similar or lower than periods neither admitted to the hospital nor recently discharged, with odds ratios 1.03 (95% CI 0.87 to 1.21; p = 0.75) for the first 14 days of an admission and 0.41 (95% CI 0.30 to 0.56; p < 0.001) for days 15 onwards. 1,088/13,609 deaths (8.0%) occurred in the 14 days after discharge. The risk of opioid-related death increased in this period, with odds ratios of 4.39 (95% CI 3.75 to 5.14; p < 0.001) on days 1 to 2 after discharge and 2.09 (95% CI 1.92 to 2.28; p < 0.001) on days 3 to 14. 11,629/13,609 deaths (85.5%) did not occur close to a hospital admission, and the remaining 656/13,609 deaths (4.8%) occurred in hospital following admission due to drug poisoning. Risk was greater for patients discharged from psychiatric admissions, those who left the hospital against medical advice, and those leaving the hospital after admissions of 7 days or more. The main limitation of the method is that it does not control for time-varying health or drug use within individuals; therefore, hospital admissions coinciding with high-risk periods may in part explain the results. Conclusions Discharge from the hospital is associated with an acute increase in the risk of opioid-related death, and 1 in 14 opioid-related deaths in England happens in the 2 weeks after the hospital discharge. This supports interventions that prevent early discharge and improve linkage with community drug treatment and harm reduction services.

Analysis of Influencing Factors of Acute Medication Poisoning in Adults in Emergency Department of Our Hospital from 2016 to 2019 and Observation of Curative Effect of Optimizing Emergency Procedures

Objective. This study analyzed the influencing factors of acute medication poisoning in adults in the emergency department of our hospital from January 2016 to December 2019 and observed the curative effect of optimizing emergency procedures on adult acute medication poisoning. Our results showed that, among all acute drug poisoning patients, the most common poisoning drug was sleeping pills (24.22%), followed by painkillers (20.31%) and antipsychotics (16.41%). Education level, drug category, drug source, drug dosage, unknown drug composition, and medication side effect were all influencing factors of acute drug poisoning. High school education level or below, self-purchasing medicine, medication overdose, unknown drug composition, and medication side effect were the risk factors of acute medication poisoning. In addition, after the nursing management of optimizing emergency procedures for this type of patients, the rescue time, observation time, and hospital stay of the patients had been shortened, the incidence of complications was low, the rescue success rate was high, and the clinical application effect was good.

Trends in drug poisoning deaths, by sex, in Ireland: a repeated cross-sectional study from 2004 to 2017

ObjectiveTo examine sex differences in age-standardised rates (ASR) of overall and drug-specific drug poisoning deaths in Ireland between 2004 and 2017.DesignRepeated cross-sectional study.SettingDrug poisoning deaths in Ireland.ParticipantsNational Drug-Related Deaths Index and pharmacy claims database (Primary Care Reimbursement Service-General Medical Services) data from 2004 to 2017.Outcome measuresThe primary outcome was trends in drug poisoning death rates by sex. The secondary outcomes were trends in drug poisoning death rates involving (1) any CNS (Central Nervous System) depressants, (2) ≥2 CNS depressants and (3) specific drugs/drug classes (eg, prescription opioids, benzodiazepines, antidepressants, alcohol, cocaine and heroin) by sex. Joinpoint regression was used to examine trends, stratified by sex, in the ASR of drug poisoning deaths (2004–2017), change points over time and average annual percentage changes (AAPCs) with 95% CI.ResultsIncreased ASR for all drug poisoning deaths from 6.86 (95% CI 6.01 to 7.72) per 100 000 in 2004 to 8.08 (95% CI 7.25 to 8.91) per 100 000 in 2017 was mainly driven by increasing deaths among men (AAPC 2.6%, 95% CI 0.2 to 5.1), with no significant change observed among women. Deaths involving ≥2 CNS depressants increased for both men (AAPC 5.6%, 95% CI 2.4 to 8.8) and women (AAPC 4.0%, 95% CI 1.1 to 6.9). Drugs with the highest significant AAPC increases for men were cocaine (7.7%, 95% CI 2.2 to 13.6), benzodiazepines (7.2%, 95% CI 2.9 to 11.6), antidepressants (6.1%, 95% CI 2.4 to 10.0) and prescription opioids (3.5%, 95% CI 1.6 to 5.5). For women, the highest AAPC was for antidepressants (4.2%, 95% CI 0.2 to 8.3), benzodiazepines (3.3%, 95% CI 0.1 to 6.5) and prescription opioids (3.0%, 95% CI 0.7 to 5.3).ConclusionDrugs implicated in drug poisoning deaths vary by sex. Policy response should include prescription monitoring programmes and practical harm reduction information on polydrug use, especially CNS depressant drugs.