TY - JOUR T1 - Acute poisoning among patients attended to in an emergency department: from the pre-pandemic period to the new normality JO - Revista Clínica Española (English Edition) T2 - AU - Caballero-Bermejo,A.F. AU - Ortega-Pérez,J. AU - Frontera-Juan,G. AU - Homar-Amengual,C. AU - Barceló-Martín,B. AU - Puiguriguer-Ferrando,J. SN - 22548874 M3 - 10.1016/j.rceng.2022.02.004 DO - 10.1016/j.rceng.2022.02.004 UR - https://revclinesp.es/en-acute-poisoning-among-patients-attended-articulo-S2254887422000388 AB - BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic has caused global changes that affect the daily life of the world's population, with a direct impact on individuals’ physical and mental health as well as on their social and recreational habits. MethodsThis study aimed to retrospectively analyze the demographic and clinical characteristics of patients attended to for acute poisoning in a hospital emergency department (ED) at three different periods of time: pre-pandemic (2019), after strict lockdown of the population in Spain (2020), and post-pandemic (2021). We analyzed 2 months (June and July) in each period. ResultsA total of 1,182 cases of acute poisoning were included. Compared to the pre-pandemic period, during lockdown, the number of patients with acute poisoning decreased (2019: 1.9% vs. 2020: 1.5%; p < 0.01); the ratio of men to women increased (2.0 vs. 1.4; p = 0.02); and the mean age of patients increased (2019: 31.4 vs. 2020: 41.3; p < 0.001), a trend which continued in 2021 (38.3). Poisoning with suicidal intention also increased during the pandemic (2019: 8.71% vs. 2020: 21.0%; p < 0.01) whereas poisonings with a recreational intention declined (2019: 76.1% vs. 2020: 62.0%; p < 0.01) with a non-significant increase in 2021 (69.0%, p = 0.07). ConclusionThe COVID-19 pandemic generated clinical and epidemiological changes in the acute poisonings attended to in a hospital emergency department during the various phases of the pandemic. ER -