OBJECTIVES : The study was conducted to assess the pattern of poisoning cases in a tertiary care hospital. A majority of the poisonings in the studies conducted across the globe were intentional with the motive of self harm compared to accidental poisoning.

METHODS : A prospective observational study was conducted from November 2019-April 2020 in the emergency department of the hospital. The collected data was reviewed to analyze the pattern of poisoning among the patients being admitted.

RESULTS : During the study period, it was found that the incident of intentional poisoning (with a purpose of self harm/ suicidal and misuse of medicines) contributed to 69.11% (n=282) of total poisoning when compared to the accidental poisoning, which accounted for 20.58% (n=84). It was observed that medicinal misuse contributed to only 08.86% (n=28) of intentional poisoning, while 90.07% (n=254) of the intentional poisoning were suicidal. The accidental poisoning includes accidental envenomation due to snakes/ insects bites (32; 38.09%), Occupational hazards (25; 29.76%) as well as general hazards like toxicity due to unintentional ingestion of medications (20; 23.80%).Among the majority of victims, the reason for attempting suicide by poisoning was revealed as family/ marital discords contributing to 30.49% (n=86) of the total intentional poisoning followed by the financial problems (18.08%; 51) and premarital affairs/ love failure (14.89%; 42). Medicinal misuse or abuse 08.88% (n=25), medical conditions 07.44% (n=21) and unemployment 06.28% (n=17) and to escape from problems 05.31% (n=15) were the other reasons for the intentional poisoning with the motive of self-harm. Among 02.48% of the poisoning with suicidal intention.

CONCLUSIONS : The common cause of intentional poisoning among the student population was found to be medical illness as well as love failure and pre-marital affairs. In some cases, the reason behind the poisoning remained unknown because of non-cooperative behavior of the relatives as well as the victims.