PSYCHIATRIC DIAGNOSIS AND TRICYCLIC PLASMA LEVELS IN 36 HOSPITALIZED OVERDOSE PATIENTS

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Abstract
Hospitalized patients (36) who had ingested serious tricyclic overdoses were studied. The purpose was to determine if psychiatric diagnosis and associated psychiatric factors correlated with the severity of the overdose as defined by plasma drug levels. Medically serious overdoses were ingested by patients with alcoholism, primary affective disorder, undiagnosed psychiatric illness and Briquet''s syndrome. Prior psychiatric treatment, prior admissions, prior overdoses or precipitating events did not correlate with the medical severity of the ingestion. Attempting to predict the individual medical severity of the overdose from psychiatric factors resulted in a dangerous underestimation of the risk for patients with Briquet''s syndrome and an overprediction in the case of primary affective disorder.

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