Emergency Department, Mackay Memorial Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
Department of Emergency Medicine, Tamshui Branch, Mackay Memorial Hospital, New Taipei City, Taiwan.
J Int Med Res. 2023 Aug;51(8):3000605231192779. doi: 10.1177/03000605231192779.
To investigate the association between seasonality and intentional drug overdose (IDO), a commonly seen method of self-harm in daily emergency medicine practice.
Cases of IDO were retrospectively selected using the International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-10 coding system (codes T36-T50), in patients who attended the Emergency Department of MacKay Memorial Hospital between January 2018 and August 2019. Data regarding age, sex, arrival time, marital status, vital signs, comorbidities, psychiatric history, social conflicts, substance of overdose, and length of hospital stay by season, were analysed using Student's -test and χ-test.
Of all included cases ( = 196), IDO occurred most frequently in spring (32.1%), particularly in male patients (28/49 male cases). First-time IDO occurred most frequently in spring (51/133 first-time cases) and most spring cases were first-time IDO (51/63 spring cases). Repeat IDO occurred most frequently in autumn (20/63 repeat cases). Female conflict with father and/or boyfriend, and personality disorder in patients who overdosed, showed seasonality with a spring peak. Hospital admission rate was highest in winter (10/45 winter cases [22.2%]).
Episodes of IDO exhibited seasonality, with a spring peak, particularly for male patients, female patients in conflict with father and/or boyfriend, and those with personality disorder. Clinicians should pay close attention to the abovementioned patient groups.
探讨季节性与故意药物过量（IDO）之间的关联，IDO 是日常急诊医学实践中常见的自伤手段。
使用国际疾病分类（ICD）-10 编码系统（代码 T36-T50），回顾性选择 2018 年 1 月至 2019 年 8 月期间在马偕纪念医院急诊部就诊的 IDO 患者。通过学生 t 检验和 χ2 检验，分析季节与年龄、性别、就诊时间、婚姻状况、生命体征、合并症、精神病史、社会冲突、药物过量种类和住院时间的相关性。
所有纳入的病例（n=196）中，IDO 最常发生在春季（32.1%），尤其是男性患者（28/49 例男性病例）。首次 IDO 最常发生在春季（51/133 例首次病例），而春季病例大多为首次 IDO（51/63 例春季病例）。重复 IDO 最常发生在秋季（20/63 例重复病例）。药物过量的女性与父亲和/或男友的冲突以及人格障碍患者显示出季节性，春季达到高峰。冬季住院率最高（10/45 例冬季病例[22.2%]）。
IDO 发作具有季节性，春季达到高峰，特别是男性患者、与父亲和/或男友有冲突的女性患者以及有人格障碍的患者。临床医生应密切关注上述患者群体。
