Abstract:
Although the high rate of suicide in elderlypeople is conventionally
explained asbeingdue to greater intent to die ,we have noted elderly Sri Lankans
dyingafter relatively mild poisoning. Using data from cases of yellow oleander
poisoning, we investigated the effect of age on outcome in 1697 patients,
controlling for gender and amount ingested.In fully adjusted models, people over
64 years old were13.8 (95% CI 3.6^53.0) times more likely to die than those less
than 25 years old.The high number of suicides in elderly people globally is likely
to be due, inpart, to the difficulty they face in surviving the effects of both the
poisoning and its treatment.
