Objective
To evaluate the incidence and outcomes from intentional suspected-suicide self-poisoning
in children and young adults ages 10-24 years old from 2000 to 2018.
Study design
Retrospective review of intentional suspected-suicide self-poisoning cases reported
to the National Poison Data System from US poison centers from 2000 to 2018 for patients
10-24 years old. For comparison of annual rates, population data by year of age were
obtained from the US Census Bureau. We evaluated changes in the annual incidence,
the annual rate per 100 000 population, and the medical outcome by patient age and
sex.
Results
There were 1 627 825 intentional suspected-suicide self-poisoning cases, of which
1 162 147 (71%) were female. In children 10-15 years old from 2000 to 2010, there
was a decrease in number and rate per 100 000 population followed by a significant
increase (from 125% to 299%) from 2011 to 2018. In children 10-18 years old, the increase
from 2011 to 2018 was driven predominantly by females. In 19-24 years old age groups,
there was a temporal delay and reduced increase in slope compared with the younger
groups. There were 340 563 moderate outcomes, 45 857 major outcomes, and 1404 deaths.
The percentage of cases with a serious outcome, major effect, or death increased over
time and with age.
Conclusions
The incidence and rate of suicide attempts using self-poisoning in children less than
19 years old increased significantly after 2011, occurring predominantly in young
girls. There has been an increase in the severity of outcomes independent of age or
sex.
Keywords
Abbreviations:
NPDS (National Poison Data System), PCC (Poison Control Center)To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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Article Info
Publication History
Published online: May 01, 2019
Accepted:
February 28,
2019
Received in revised form:
February 5,
2019
Received:
December 18,
2018
Footnotes
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
Identification
Copyright
© 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
