A seven-year hospital study found benzodiazepines commonly coded in poisoning admissions. Recurrent admissions mean episode counts cannot be treated as the number of different people poisoned.
The dataset
The single-center retrospective analysis used discharge codes for drug poisoning during 2018–2024. It identified 2,989 episodes in 2,481 patients, with adults forming the large majority.
Benzodiazepines were the most frequently involved drug class across age groups overall, while paracetamol predominated in pediatric self-poisoning. About one in eight patients had recurrent episodes. Intensive-care use and mortality were reported across the broader poisoning groups.
Coding and selection
Discharge coding identifies recorded diagnoses rather than providing a complete analytical toxicology profile or verified dose for every admission. The cohort included hospitalized patients at a tertiary center and did not represent every community exposure.
Overall ICU and mortality percentages should not be attributed specifically to benzodiazepines when several classes and mixed exposures are included.
A useful denominator check
Specify whether a statistic concerns admissions, patients, adults, children, or a particular intent category. The paper supports concern about recurrence and service burden. It cannot establish a benzodiazepine-specific fatality rate from the overall hospital outcome or show that each coded exposure caused all symptoms in the admission.
Source paper
Original analysis of the supplied journal article, identified as PMC12521231.
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