Summary
Acute intoxication: differences in men and women
Clemente Rodríguez C, Aguirre Tejedo A, Echarte Pazos JL, Puente Palacios I, Iglesias-Lepine ML, Supervía Caparrós A
Affiliation of the authors
Servicio de Urgencias. Hospital Universitario del Mar. Parc de Salut Mar. Barcelona, Spain. Servicio de Urgencias. Consorci Hospitalari Parc Taulí. Sabadell. Barcelona, Spain.
DOI
Quote
Clemente Rodríguez C, Aguirre Tejedo A, Echarte Pazos JL, Puente Palacios I, Iglesias-Lepine ML, Supervía Caparrós A. Acute intoxication: differences in men and women. Emergencias. 2010;22:435-40
Summary
Objective: To analyze intoxications treated in our emergency department according to
the patient’s gender.
Methods: Retrospective study of intoxications treated in 2003 and 2004. We recorded
patient characteristics, place where the toxic exposure occurred, treatment, and
destination on discharge; data for men and women were compared.
Results: Our department recorded treating 1531 cases of intoxication. Mean patient age
was 34 years; 56.6% were men. Suicide was the motive for more women than men
(35.6% vs 18.8%), and women suffered more accidental intoxications than men (11.7%
vs 4.2%). However, fewer recreational intoxications were treated in women (52.6% vs
77.0%) (P<.001 for all comparisons). Toxic exposure occurred in a public place more often in men (68.1%) than women (46.8%), who were more frequently exposed at home (50.8% vs 28.9% for men) (P<.001). Men more often had a history of prior intoxication (51.6% vs 39.2%, P<.001). Drug-related intoxications were more common in women overall (31.6% vs 12.6%), but men had more drug abuse exposures (23.8% vs 11.3%) (P<.001, both comparisons). Regarding street drug abuse, more polydrug intoxications were also recorded for men (43.9% vs 31.3%, P=.003). Psychiatric evaluations were performed in 27.7% of the men and 40.2% of the women (P<.001). Treatment differed only for the percentage of gastrointestinal tract decontaminations performed (16.8% of women vs 7.3% of men, P<001). Destination on discharge did not differ. Conclusions: In women, intoxications occurred at home from drugs and products found in the home and women more often used exposure to a toxic substance to attempt suicide. Recreational use of illicit toxic substances was more common in men, who also used public places more often.