The cost of antidepressant overdose

Ninety percent of suicide attempts referred to a general hospital are by self-poisoning. Among women, drug overdose is the commonest means of suicide. In a retrospective naturalistic review of 200 patients who were treated in the Critical Care Unit of a general hospital following medication overdose...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:General hospital psychiatry 1995-11, Vol.17 (6), p.454-455
Main Authors: D'Mello, Dale A., Finkbeiner, David S., Kocher, Keith N.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult and adolescent clinical studies
Antidepressive Agents - economics
Antidepressive Agents - poisoning
Antidepressive Agents, Second-Generation - economics
Antidepressive Agents, Second-Generation - poisoning
Biological and medical sciences
Costs and Cost Analysis
Critical Care - economics
Drug Overdose - economics
Drug Overdose - prevention & control
Drug Overdose - psychology
Female
Humans
Length of Stay - economics
Male
Medical sciences
Michigan
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Retrospective Studies
Suicide
Suicide, Attempted - economics
Suicide, Attempted - prevention & control
Suicide, Attempted - psychology
Treatment Outcome
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Summary:Ninety percent of suicide attempts referred to a general hospital are by self-poisoning. Among women, drug overdose is the commonest means of suicide. In a retrospective naturalistic review of 200 patients who were treated in the Critical Care Unit of a general hospital following medication overdose, 12% were antidepressant overdoses. The mean duration of hospital stay for overdose with tricyclic antidepressants (TCA) was more than double that for overdose with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) (7 vs 3 days; z = 2.20, p < 0.05). The dollar cost of hospital treatment for patients who overdosed on TCAs was four times greater than that for patients who overdosed on SSRIs ($22,923 vs $5,379; z = 2.30, p < 0.05). The tricyclic compounds clearly have a price advantage over more recently introduced antidepressant agents fluoxetine, sertraline, paroxetine, venlafaxine, and bupropion. The apparent cost advantage of prescribing a less expensive drug may be nullified by the cost associated with adverse consequences.
ISSN:0163-8343
1873-7714
DOI:10.1016/0163-8343(95)00069-0