Abstract

CARDENAS L, Karla Mabel; ORJUELA R, María Erley  and  TELLEZ-MOSQUERA, Jairo Alfonso. Clinical and demographic profile of patients nursed in urgency services due to acute intoxication with psychoactive substances in Bogotá. rev.fac.med. [online]. 2012, vol.60, n.4, pp.265-273. ISSN 0120-0011.

Background. Psychoactive substance use is public health problem around the world, affecting individuals and society in general. It has been estimated that it contributes towards the rapid propagation of infectious diseases such as HIV and hepatitis. Society thus cannot afford to ignore such threat and must address such abuse. Objective. Determining the clinical and demographic profile of patients suffering acute psychoactive substance poisoning who were attended by emergency services in Bogotá, 20102011. Methods. This was a descriptive, retrospective study which emerged from reviewing 1,073 records kept by the Colombian Public Health Surveillance System (Sistema Nacional de Vigilancia en Salud Pública) related to cases of people suffering from psychoactive substance poisoning who had been attended by emergency services in Bogotá, 20102011. The corresponding clinical histories were reviewed to establish the patients' clinical profile. Simple and stratified frequency were calculated, using 95% confidence intervals (95%CI), for sociodemographic variables, type of psychoactive substance and clinical manifestation. Results. Males aged 2534 years old consulted most (73%), intoxication for criminal purposes predominating (58%) having been drugged to reduce resistance to assault. Benzodiazepines were implicated in 83% of the cases; 80% of clinical manifestations were neurological. Conclusion. Exposure with criminal intent predominated in this work's results; it would seem to be a phenomenon which has not been documented in the scientific literature reviewed here. Benzodiazepine exposure (the substance implicated in poisoning cases) was similar to that obtained by Uribe et al., (2005) and that found in other substancerelated disorder studies.

Keywords : SubstanceRelated Disorders; Emergencies; Alcoholic Intoxication; Colombia.

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