Availability of Psychotropic Medicines and Agrochemicals in Patients with Suicidal Attempts During an Investigation Period of Six Months

Objective: The purpose of this study is to come to a conclusion about the kind of the toxic substance, the gender and the timing of suicidal attempts, mainly investigation of the availability of medicines and agrochemicals. Material and Methods: In a period of six months (May-October 2006), 3,060 suicidal attempts from all over the country were reported to PIC and epidemiologic data, clinical state, amount of the toxic substances and the outcome were evaluated. Results: From the 3,060 incidents that were studied, 75.5% were females while the remaining 24.5% were males. High frequency of suicidal attempts was observed during leisure days. Most of the calls came from the capital area. Two groups of patients have been investigated thoroughly. A group: psychotropics, because of the high frequency (47.7%) in suicidal attempts and B group: agrochemicals, because of the severity of intoxication. From the A group, 75.7% occurred with psychotropic medicines alone, while 24.3% occurred by combining them with other substances. 49.8% of the suicidal attempts were under medical treatment with psychotropic medicines. In addition, 25.2% had at least one previous suicidal attempt. 46 cases had received a highly toxic dose of psychotropic substances. In those history revealed the reason for the large supply of medicines at home. In 56.5% of these cases, there were prescriptions which involved more medicines than the patient needed per month, while 37% were due to the saving of the medicines by the patient and 6.5% of the cases had obtained the medicines from the pharmacy without a prescription. 2.6% of the total number of attempts occurred from agrochemicals with the highest frequency in males and in rural areas, while a proportion of them were not even occupationally involved with these substances. From the 3,060 attempts 7 deaths were reported, which had been caused by agrochemicals. The attempts with agrochemicals appear to cause the most severe clinical states and demand the longest hospitalization. Conclusion: A. The method of prescription and the supply of psychotropic drugs must be strictly controlled by physicians and the families of the patients under psychotropic therapy. B. State authorities and PICs must organize steps for restriction in the use of agrochemicals and their commercial delivery from agriculturalists, in order to reduce the number of fatal suicidal attempts.