Ibuprofen and paracetamol, while readily available, are not harmless if taken in large quantities.Image Getty Images
The increase is reflected in the annual overview of the Poison Center (NVIC), which is part of the UMC Utrecht. In 2022, they received 37 percent more reports about young people deliberately taking an overdose of medicines than in 2020. A total of 1439 reports were received. A large increase of 45 percent was also visible in 2021.
The poison center investigated the reports and saw that the increase started from July 2020. It rose most sharply among girls aged 13 to 15 years. “This requires attention,” says Professor Dylan de Lange, intensivist-toxicologist and head of the NVIC. He calls the rise “disturbing.”
Yet such a deliberate overdose does not mean that someone really wants to die, says Bas Oude Ophuis, child and adolescent psychiatrist at UMC Utrecht. “It does indicate that something is going on with the young person.”
Not without risks
The NVIC receives questions 24/7 from health care providers from all over the country who treat patients who are experiencing poisoning. The center advises on treatment and records the type of poisoning, 45,185 last year, including 9,244 animals. The consequences of the overdose for the patient are not registered as standard. It is clear that things go wrong every now and then, even with commonly sold substances such as paracetamol and ibuprofen. De Lange: “Make no mistake, these are not risk-free medicines. An overdose can lead to liver and kidney damage and in some cases be fatal.”
Two more striking trends emerge from the annual review: for example, the center saw an increase in the number of poisonings with ‘benzodiazepines’; drugs with a sedative effect, which can be used as drugs. The center received 195 reports about this.
The number of workplace poisonings also increased in 2022, after three years in which this number stabilized. The center received 921 reports, many of which reported a chemical entering an employee’s eye.
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2023-07-04 01:00:25
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