This site is intended for healthcare professionals

Go to /sign-in page

You can view 5 more pages before signing in

Overdose

Last reviewed dd mmm yyyy. Last edited dd mmm yyyy

Authoring team

Most cases of self-poisoning are intentional in adults but are usually accidental in children. Ninety percent of adults who deliberately harm themselves choose drug overdose.

Initial management should be as a medical emergency:

  • assessment and resuscitation
  • substance identification
  • elimination
  • specific and general treatment
  • period of observation

Ideally, this should be followed by a full psychological assessment of the reasons for the attempted suicide and the risk of a repeat.


Related pages

Create an account to add page annotations

Add information to this page that would be handy to have on hand during a consultation, such as a web address or phone number. This information will always be displayed when you visit this page