Socio-demographic Pattern of Poisoning Cases Reported at Aarupadai Veedu Medical College & Hospital, Puducherry: A Five Years Retrospective Study

Poisoning ranks as the 13^th leading cause of death worldwide & it is the fourth most common cause of accidents in children. The World Health Organization(WHO) reports an uptrend in suicidal poisoning worldwide and consumption of pesticides is the most common method of suicide. Thorough knowledge about the nature and magnitude of the problem is hence essential for developing strategies to tackle such casualties.

To study the socio-demographic pattern of poisoning cases admitted in Aarupadai Veedu Medical College & Hospital, Puducherry.

Retrospective analysis of all 548 poisoning cases reported to the casualty of Aarupadai Veedu Medical College & Hospital over a period of 5 yrs i.e. from 1^st July 2009 to 30^th June 2014 was done. Data regarding age, sex, educational status, marital status, socioeconomic class, place of residence, type of poison, time of exposure and intention of poisoning was entered into excel & analysed in SPSS for calculating percentages and Chi square test.

Peak incidence was observed in the age group of 21-30 yrs (31.57%) & majority (58.03%) were female victims, 75.36% were from rural area & in 52.92% of cases poisoning happened during the day time. In 75.90% cases, intention of poisoning was suicidal while 23.70% cases were accidental. The most common class of poison involved was pesticides (38.87%) with Organophosphorus compound in majority patients (25.73%).

There is an urgent need to reinforce the regulations regarding sales of drugs & agrochemicals which will definitely reduce the misuse of these substances by the general public. Equally important is to focus on vulnerable, ignored groups and pool together researchers, clinicians, politicians, policy makers to develop a national plan for providing sustainable mental health support for our community for suicide prevention.