Medicinal self‐poisoning and prescription frequency

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Abstract
Deliberate non-fatal self-poisoning due to medicinal agents more than doubled in England and Wales [UK] during the period 1968-1978. Inter-regional analysis showed a significant positive correlations between the rate at which psychotropic drugs were prescribed by general practitioners (GP) and the medicinal self-poisoning rate. Regression analysis indicated that a reduction of 1000 psychotropic prescriptions would be associated with 3.8 fewer self-poisoning admissions due to medicinal agents. Causal and non-causal links between the psychotropic prescription rate and the medicinal self-poisoning rate were both considered, but the balance of the evidence seems to favor the causal interpretation. Apparently, the benefits of such reduced prescribing outweigh the costs. A significant relationship was not found between unemployment and medicinal self-poisoning.