Mechanical ventilation as an indicator of somatic severity of self-poisoning: implications for psychiatric care and long-term outcomes.

Background Somatic severity of a self-poisoning episode varies widely between patients. Aims To determine the correlates (psychiatric profiles, long-term outcome) of mechanical ventilationused as a proxy to define somatic severity during a self-poisoning. Method All patients who required mechanical ventilationwere pair-matched with ones who did not for age, gender and presence of psychiatric history. One year after the self-poisoning episode, patients were interviewed using the Hospital Anxietyand Depression Scale(HADS) and a quality-of-life assessment questionnaire (Short-Form 12 Health Survey). Results The ventilation group ( n = 99) more frequently had mood disordersand less frequently had adjustment disorders( P = 0.007), with a higher depression score on the HADS ( P = 0.01) than those in the non-ventilation group ( n = 97). Survival curves showed lower survival in the ventilation group ( P = 0.03). Conclusions Requirement for mechanical ventilationfollowing self-poisoning is associated with a high prevalence of mood disordersand poor long-term outcome.