Evaluation of the causes of poisoning with addictive agents (narcotics, stimulants, alcohol) among children admitted to Abouzar Hospital from 2016-2019

Aim of the study
We aimed to determine the causes of poisoning with addictive agents (narcotics, stimulants, alcohol) among children admitted to Abouzar Hospital from 2016-2019.

Material and methods
This is a descriptive cross-sectional study which had conducted on 424 children those were poisoned with narcotics, stimulants and alcohol referred to Abouzar Hospital in Ahvaz city during 2016-2019. After we took permission of Ethics Committee of the University of Medical Sciences, the researcher referred to Abuzar Hospital to identified the eligible children criteria, and collected all the required information using a checklist. Data analysis was carried out using SPSS ver. 24 and p-value < 0.05 was considered as the significance level.

Results
A total of 245 (57.8%) of participants were boys. Alcohol, tramadol, opium, crystal, methadone, and heroin poisoning accounted for 12 (2.8%), 2 (0.5), 178 (42%), 34 (8%), 194 (45.8%), and 4 (0.9%) of cases, respectively. A total of 276 people (65.1%) aged less than 3 years old, 414 people (97.6%) lived in the city, and 404 people (95.3%) had no previous history of poisoning. The poisoning occurs at night in 276 (65.1%) of cases and accidental poisoning accounted for 258 (60.8) of cases. Children had access to addictive agents through their parents (both parents) in 144 (34%) of cases. A total of 272 patients (64.2%) discharged and 11 patients (2.6%) died. There was no significant relationship between the cause of poisoning with sex, year and month of referral, place of residence and history and time of poisoning (p > 0.05), but there was a significant relationship between the cause of poisoning with age, type and outcome of poisoning and access (p < 0.05).

Conclusions
Finding has suggested that appropriate information be provided to parents and inform them of the dangers of poisoning with additive agents among their children.