Co-proxamol and suicide: a study of national mortality statistics and local non-fatal self poisonings.
نویسندگان
چکیده
OBJECTIVES To examine the incidence of suicides due to co-proxamol compared with tricyclic antidepressants and paracetamol, and to compare fatality rates for self poisonings with these drugs. DESIGN Analysis of routinely collected national and local data on suicides and self poisonings. SETTING Records of suicides in England and Wales 1997-9; non-fatal self poisonings in Oxford District 1997-9. DATA SOURCES Office for National Statistics and Oxford monitoring system for attempted suicide. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Incidence of suicides with co-proxamol or tricyclic antidepressants or paracetamol. Ratios of fatal to non-fatal self poisonings. RESULTS Co-proxamol alone accounted for 5% of all suicides. Of 4162 drug related suicides, 18% (766) involved co-proxamol alone, 22% (927) tricyclic antidepressants alone, and 9% (368) paracetamol alone. A higher proportion of suicides in the 10-24 year age group were due to co-proxamol than in the other age groups. The odds of dying after overdose with co-proxamol was 2.3 times (95% confidence interval 2.1 to 2.5) that for tricyclic antidepressants and 28.1 times (24.9 to 32.9) that for paracetamol. CONCLUSIONS Self poisoning with co-proxamol is particularly dangerous and contributes substantially to drug related suicides. Restricting availability of co-proxamol could have an important role in suicide prevention.
منابع مشابه
Six-Year Follow-Up of Impact of Co-proxamol Withdrawal in England and Wales on Prescribing and Deaths: Time-Series Study
BACKGROUND The analgesic co-proxamol (paracetamol/dextropropoxyphene combination) has been widely involved in fatal poisoning. Concerns about its safety/effectiveness profile and widespread use for suicidal poisoning prompted its withdrawal in the UK in 2005, with partial withdrawal between 2005 and 2007, and full withdrawal in 2008. Our objective in this study was to assess the association bet...
متن کاملEffect of withdrawal of co-proxamol on prescribing and deaths from drug poisoning in England and Wales: time series analysis
OBJECTIVE To assess the effect of the UK Committee on Safety of Medicines' announcement in January 2005 of withdrawal of co-proxamol on analgesic prescribing and poisoning mortality. DESIGN Interrupted time series analysis for 1998-2007. SETTING England and Wales. DATA SOURCES Prescribing data from the prescription statistics department of the Information Centre for Health and Social Care...
متن کاملCo-proxamol and suicide: preventing the continuing toll of overdose deaths.
Restricting means for suicide is a key element in suicide prevention strategies of all countries where these have been introduced. Preventing deaths from analgesic overdoses is highlighted in the National Suicide Prevention Strategy for England. The problem of self-poisoning with the prescription-only drug co-proxamol (dextropropoxyphene plus paracetamol) has received attention in several count...
متن کاملMortality and suicide after non-fatal self-poisoning: 16-year outcome study.
BACKGROUND Suicide reduction is government strategy in many countries. We need to quantify the connection between non-fatal self-poisoning and eventual suicide. AIMS To determine mortality after an episode of self-poisoning and to identify predictors of death by any cause or by suicide. METHOD A retrospective single-group cohort study was undertaken with 976 consecutive patients attending a...
متن کاملCo-proxamol and suicide
Editor—We agree with Hawton et al that co-proxamol presents a major overdose hazard, their results illustrating the difficulties for licensing authorities in limiting availability of prescription medicines that are only hazardous in overdose. Co-proxamol is more likely to result in death; it causes prolongation of the QRS interval in an electrocardiogram in experimental animals and in humans. 3...
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ورودعنوان ژورنال:
- BMJ
دوره 326 7397 شماره
صفحات -
تاریخ انتشار 2003