Suicidal digitalis poisoning is life-threatening and often has a fatal outcome. The treatment and clinical course of acute poisoning with 250 mg digitoxin in a depressive male patient aged 48 years are reported. Marked elevation of serum digitoxin level (360 nmol/l 8 hours after ingestion) and initial hyperkalemia (5.7 mmol/l) as well as the history of excessive dose intake, pointed toward seve...

Comparisons of psychiatric patients who die by suicide using different methods are scarce. We aimed to establish the methods of suicide used by those who are currently or have recently been in contact with mental health services in England and Wales (N = 6,203), and describe the social and clinical characteristics of suicides by different methods. We found that hanging, self-poisoning, and jump...

Dear Editor, Carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning is a leading cause of death by suicide.1 Acute CO intoxication may induce hypoxic encephalopathy with variable presentations, ranging from confusion to deep coma but most recover completely from the acute episode following CO poisoning. However, up to 30% of survivors develop neuropsychiatric and cognitive manifestations 1 week to 6 months after CO ex...

Self-induced poisoning with chemicals is one of the most commonly used suicide methods. Suicide attempts using massive pure sodium ferrocyanide and methanol are rare. This article discusses the management of acute intentional self-poisoning using sodium ferrocyanide and methanol. We present a case of acute self-induced poisoning using sodium ferrocyanide and methanol admitted to our hospital 2 ...

BACKGROUND Previous analyses of adolescent suicides in England and Wales have focused on short time periods. AIMS To investigate trends in suicide and accidental deaths in adolescents between 1972 and 2011. METHOD Time trend analysis of rates of suicides and deaths from accidental poisoning and hanging in 10- to 19-year-olds by age, gender and deprivation. Rate ratios were estimated for 198...

BACKGROUND Pesticide self-poisoning is the most commonly used suicide method worldwide, but few studies have investigated the national epidemiology of pesticide suicide in countries where it is a major public health problem. This study aims to investigate geographic variations in pesticide suicide and their impact on the spatial distribution of suicide in Taiwan. METHODS Smoothed standardized...

In order to identify clues to forensic pathologist's classification of suicide, the forensic files of 100 consecutive cases of suicide, and 22 cases of undetermined manner of death, were analysed. Some specific causes of death, suicidal communication and other circumstantial evidence suggesting suicidal intent explained all but three classifications. Problematic cases concerned death by poisoni...