Psychiatric intervention and repeated admission to emergency centres due to drug overdose

Abstract

BackgroundRepeated drug overdose is a major risk factor for suicide. Data are lacking on the effect of psychiatric intervention on preventing repeated drug overdose.AimsTo investigate whether psychiatric intervention was associated with reduced readmission to emergency centres due to drug overdose.MethodUsing a Japanese national in-patient database, we identified patients who were first admitted to emergency centres for drug overdose in 2010–2012. We used propensity score matching for patient and hospital factors to compare readmission rates between intervention (patients undergoing psychosocial assessment) and unexposed groups.ResultsOf 29 564 eligible patients, 13 035 underwent psychiatric intervention. In the propensity-matched 7938 pairs, 1304 patients were readmitted because of drug overdose. Readmission rate was lower in the intervention than in the unexposed group (7.3% v. 9.1% respectively, P<0.001).ConclusionsPsychiatric intervention was associated with reduced readmission in patients who had taken a drug overdose.