America's poison centers are fielding increasingly severe cases that are dramatically more likely to lead to serious harm or death in both adults and children, a new study from the University of Virginia School of Medicine reveals. The study examined a 15-year period ending in 2021 and found the number of calls about "intentional exposures" that resulted in death had increased 234%. Those calls included suicide attempts , illegal drug use and misuse of medications.
The study is published in the journal Clinical Toxicology . The severity of "unintentional exposures" increased as well, with the number resulting in severe harm (such as disfigurement or disability) increasing by more than a third and the number resulting in death increasing by 65.3%.
Those calls included accidents like taking an incorrect dose of medicine; workplace and environmental exposures to harmful substances ; bites and stings; and food poisoning . The severity of cases among children was up, too. The number of pediatric intentional exposures resulting in severe harm or death was up by 76.
6%, even as the total number of cases declined by 33%. The number of unintentional exposures resulting in severe harm or death was up by 190% and 122.7%, respectively.
"As a society, we should be concerned at these trends pertaining to children," said Dr. Christopher Holstege, director of UVA Health's Blue Ridge Poison Center and chief of the Division of Medical Toxicology at UVA's School of Medicine. "We need to collabor.
