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. 2013 Nov 1;9(4):380–404. doi: 10.1007/s13181-013-0352-5

Table 5.

Reasons for medical toxicology consultation

2010 (%) 2011 (%) 2012 (%)
Intentional exposure—pharmaceutical 1,675 (43) 2,499 (39) 3,002 (41)
Intentional exposure—non-pharmaceutical 200 (5) 535 (8) 883 (12)
Unintentional exposure—pharmaceutical 557 (14) 761 (12) 805 (11)
Unintentional exposure—non-pharmaceutical 198 (5) 293 (5) 324 (4)
Drug abuse—illicit/non-prescription drug abuse 521 (13) 348 (5) 708 (10)
Drug abuse—prescription 531 (13) 442 (7) 392 (5)
Drug abuse—over-the-counter (added partway through 2012) NA (0) NA (0) 31 (0)
Ethanol abuse NA (0) 325 (5) 361 (5)
Withdrawal 296 (8) 325 (5) 460 (6)
Adverse drug effect 35 (1) 95 (1) 120 (2)
Adverse drug reaction 116 (3) 229 (4) 371 (5)
Envenomation -total 137 (3) 220 (3) 202 (3)
Envenomation -snake 61 (2) 120 (2) 124 (2)
Envenomation -spider 10 (0) 33 (1) 38 (1)
Envenomation -other 0 (0) 6 (0) 25 (0)
Organ system dysfunction 114 (3) 116 (2) 312 (4)
Interpretation of laboratory data 79 (2) 178 (3) 161 (2)
Occupational evaluation 120 (3) 195 (3) 116 (2)
Environmental evaluation 93 (2) 199 (3) 138 (2)
Case entries per yeara 3,936 6,456 7,269

aThe (%) represents the % of time that a reason for medical toxicology consultation was used out of the total case entries per year not the total number of reasons for medical toxicology consultation. Often case entries included more than one reason for toxicology consultation (i.e., illicit drug abuse and alcohol abuse). The total number of Reasons for consultation in 2012 was 8,573. The percentages thus do not add up to 100 %