Table 4.

Responses to questionnaire for patients presenting with overdoses in the three weeks before and the three weeks after broadcast of index Casualty episode. Values are numbers (percentages) of those who responded to question unless stated otherwise

	3 weeks before broadcast				3 weeks after broadcast
	3rd week	2nd week	1st week		1st week	2nd week	3rd week
Demographics:
No of patients	187	190	186		194	163	127
Sex ratio (male:female)	85:97	69:119	100:80		93:99	72:87	47:77
Median (range) age in years	31 (12-90)	29 (13-83)	31 (12-89)		30 (13-70)	30 (7-82)	27.5 (13-82)
Method of overdose:
Pure paracetamol tablets*	45 (24)	73 (38)	49 (26)		62 (32)	71 (44)	48 (38)
Pure paracetamol or paracetamol compound*	91 (50)	102 (54)	89 (48)		91 (49)	89 (55)	65 (51)
Delay from paracetamol overdose to presentation (hours):
<6	61 (76)	73 (75)	65 (76)		69 (78)	56 (73)	42 (70)
6-12	11 (14)	10 (10)	8 (9)		12 (14)	8 (10)	9 (15)
>12	8 (10)	14 (14)	12 (14)		7 (8)	13 (17)	9 (15)
Overdose history:
Previous overdose	93 (56)	102 (58)	79 (46)		88 (50)	70 (47)	61 (52)
Previous paracetamol overdose	50 (30)	51 (29)	34 (20)		51 (29)	40 (27)	32 (27)
Television viewing habits:
Saw last episode of Casualty	22 (15)	23 (15)	26 (17)
Saw index episode of Casualty					32 (18)	23 (18)	14 (13)
General television viewing influenced choice of drug	5 (3)	6 (4)	2 (1)		7 (4)	5 (4)	6 (6)
Opinions among those who watched Casualty:	(n=22)	(n=23)	(n=26)		(n=32)	(n=23)	(n=14)
General television viewing influenced choice of drug	1 (5)	2 (9)	1 (4)		3 (10)	4 (17)	3 (21)
Index episode influenced decision to take overdose					6 (20)	2 (9)	2 (14)
Index episode influenced choice of drug					5 (17)	3 (13)	2 (14)
Index episode influenced speed of seeking help					3 (10)	1 (5)	3 (21)

^*Includes those who also took non-paracetamol drugs.