Abstract

ANTUNES, Flávia  and  FELIX DE OLIVEIRA, Magda Lúcia. Characteristics of patients hospitalized at an intensive care unit due to drug abuse. Invest. educ. enferm [online]. 2013, vol.31, n.2, pp.201-209. ISSN 0120-5307.

Objective. To characterize the clinical and demographic profile of patients hospitalized due to drug intoxication at an intensive care unit (ICU) of a teaching hospital between 2004 and 2010. Methodology. In this descriptive study, information was collected from the hospitalized patients, as informed by a Toxicology Care Center (CAT) in Paraná (Brazil). The clinical files were checked and information was collected about age, gender, toxic agents and intoxication circumstances, comorbidities and clinical outcomes. Results. Sixty-two patients were included in the study, with a mean age of 58 years and 77% male. Alcohol was the substance related to most hospitalizations (77%), followed by psychoactive drugs (14%) and marihuana and crack (5% each). The main comorbidities were bronchopneumonia due to aspiration (37%), alcohol-related liver cirrhosis (24%) and traumatic brain injury (19%). The most frequent intoxication circumstances were chronic abuse (79%), attemptive suicide (19%) and acute abuse (4.9%). Thirty-nine percent of the patients died during hospitalization. Conclusion. The results show a concerning reality, as most of the patients are men of economically active age, who were intoxicated by a legal substance like alcohol, with a relevant number of deaths. Nurses need to pay particular attention to this health problem, in the context of which they play a fundamental role as educators with a view to the encouragement of healthy lifestyles.

Keywords : intensive care units; drug users; hospitalization.

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