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Zolpidem as a high risk factor for elderly suicide in South Korea
- Title
- Zolpidem as a high risk factor for elderly suicide in South Korea
- Authors
- Kim E.; Lee J.H.; Lee D.H.
- Ewha Authors
- 이덕희; 이재희
- SCOPUS Author ID
- 이덕희
- Issue Date
- 2020
- Journal Title
- Archives of Suicide Research
- ISSN
- 1381-1118
- Citation
- Archives of Suicide Research
- Keywords
- Elderly; emergency department; hypnotics; sedatives; suicide; zolpidem
- Publisher
- Routledge
- Indexed
- SSCI; SCOPUS
- Document Type
- Article
- Abstract
- Backgrounds: South Korea, a nation with rapidly aging population, has the highest suicide rates in the world, and the elderly have a suicide rate three times higher than the national average. We classified the drugs ingested for suicide attempts by age groups and compare the clinical outcomes between non-elderly and elderly patients who attempted suicide by ingesting drugs. Materials and methods: Data were obtained from the nationwide Emergency Department-Based Injury Surveillance of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, South Korea between January 2011 and December 2016. Results: There were 12,104 patients who attempted suicide by ingesting drugs, of whom the elderly (73.5%) ingested more sedatives and hypnotics than the non-elderly (53.9%); of these drugs, zolpidem ingestion was higher in the elderly than the non-elderly. Conversely, the non-elderly ingested more antipsychotics and antidepressants (15.9%) and analgesics (10.8%) than the elderly (7.4% and 2.8%, respectively). The elderly had longer hospital stay, higher intensive care unit (ICU) admission rate, and higher mortality rate than the non-elderly: more elderly patients (30.2%) were admitted to the ICU than the non-elderly (15.7%); the duration of hospital stays was 6.27 ± 11.35 days in the elderly and 8.94 ± 14.85 days in the non-elderly; and the mortality rate was 0.4% in the non-elderly and 3.0% in the elderly. Conclusion: Findings suggest that zolpidem has become the greatest risk factor for the elderly Koreans in suicide attempts. Further prevention efforts are needed to prevent suicide among the elderly. © 2020 International Academy for Suicide Research.
- DOI
- 10.1080/13811118.2020.1838369
- Appears in Collections:
- 의과대학 > 의학과 > Journal papers
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