Severe Drug Overdose: Results of Treatment

Abstract

The incidence and management of severe drug overdose patients over a five-year period is presented, together with results and complications. Emphasis is placed on the importance of conservative measures with minimal need for more aggressive methods of treatment. A study of all overdose patients admitted to the Intensive Care ward of the Alfred Hospital, Melbourne was carried out over a five-year period from February 1969 to February 1974. MATERIAL 159 47 112 number represents only 2•8 per cent of the total number of overdose patients seen at the Casualty Department of the hospital.