© 2002 the Emergency Medicine Journal
EDITORIAL
Toxicology
Advances, challenges, and controversies in poisoning
National Poisons Information Service, Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Trust, Avonley Road, London, SE14 5ER, UK
Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr A L Jones;
alison.jones@gstt.sthames.nhs.uk
The treatment of self poisoned patients in the emergency department
Keywords: poisoning; poisoning
Patients presenting with self poisoning constitute a significant and increasing workload in emergency medicine departments and rates in the UK (up to 347 per 100 000 per year) are among the highest in Europe.1,2 The severity of poisoning has decreased over the past decade with the introduction of safer drugs such as serotonin reuptake inhibitors over tricyclic antidepressants, but there are still more than 2000 deaths per year in the UK from self poisoning.3
Fewer than 1% of people who present with self poisoning develop severe clinical effects.4 One of the main challenges in managing poisoned patients is to identify this group as early as possible so that appropriate supportive, and if necessary, specific management steps can be instituted to prevent serious complications. Equally importantly, the vast majority of patients (particularly children) require only supportive care and do not need to be exposed to unnecessary procedures. Meticulous supportive care
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