Drug-Related Poisonings among Chilean Adult Population

BACKGROUND: Poisonings is a preventable public health problem that globally affects the population. We aimed to characterize drug-related acute poisonings occurred in Chile between the years of 2016 and 2020. METHODS: A retrospective study of poisonings among hospitalized patients was carried out. Data were obtained from the Medical Outcome Statistical Report database. Inclusion criteria were cases of patients admitted into either public or private healthcare settings with diagnosis of drug-related poisoning according to the WHO ICD-10 codes T30–T50. Statistical analyses were run to establish either significant associations or differences between variables selected in the study. RESULTS: Overall, 12,975 poisonings were identified during the 2016–2020 period. These events corresponded to 0.16% of all national hospital admissions in the study period. Women represented 71.1% of the cases. 76.7% of events were related to intentional poisonings while 7.3% and 16% were accidental and undetermined poisonings respectively. 44.6% of accidental and intentional poisonings occurred at the age of 18–29 yr old. Benzodiazepines (22.8%), antidepressants (11.2%), and acetaminophen (5.1) were the most common drugs associated with poisonings. Average length of hospitalization was between 3.3 and 8.2 days. 0.6% of poisonings resulted in deaths. CONCLUSION: Poisonings were characterized by patients’ sex and age, circumstance of exposure, length of hospitalization, and outcome. Poisoning rates were stable along the years with a slight decrease in 2020. Intentional poisonings among young women and men were more common. Most of the cases had favorable outcome for patients.