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Objective: Data from South Asia indicate that for 15%–20% of suicide attempts, pesticides are purchased from shops; otherwise, pesticides are obtained from an individual's house or nearby environment. We aimed to investigate the difference between individuals who directly purchase pesticides from shops for suicide attempts and suicide deaths versus those related to accessing the pesticides from an individual's house or nearby environment. Methods: We conducted two comparative studies in rural Sri Lanka: (1) non‐fatal shop cases (n = 50) were survivors of self‐poisoning with pesticides who ingested the pesticides after purchasing them from a shop; non‐fatal domestic cases (n = 192) were survivors who accessed pesticides from their house or nearby environment. (2) fatal shop cases (n = 50) were individuals who died after ingesting pesticides they purchased for the act; fatal domestic cases (n = 102) were patients who died after ingesting pesticides they accessed at house or nearby environment. Logistic regression analysis was used to assess the characteristics which distinguished between the shop and domestic cases. Results: Data indicate that 20.7% and 32.9% of individuals who used pesticides for suicide attempts and suicide deaths had purchased them from shops, respectively. Being a non‐farmer was the main distinguishing characteristic of shop cases: adjusted odds ratios (AOR) 8.9, 95% confidence intervals (CI) 3.2–24.4 for non‐fatal shop cases, and AOR 4.0, 95% CI 1.5–10.6 for fatal shop cases. Non‐fatal shop cases also had higher suicide intent (AOR 3.0, CI 1.0–8.9), and ingesting an insecticide (AOR 4.8, CI 1.8–1.0–8.9) than non‐fatal domestic cases. Conclusion: A high suicide intent of individuals who purchase pesticides for the event explains the high proportion of such fatal cases. Such high suicide intent makes the prevention implications difficult to spell out for those individuals who purchase pesticides for self‐poisoning. However, our findings are valuable for clinicians to assess pesticide poisoning cases in hospitals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Aims The UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink ( CPRD) is increasingly being used to investigate suicide-related adverse drug reactions. No studies have comprehensively validated the recording of suicide and nonfatal self-harm in the CPRD. We validated general practitioners' recording of these outcomes using linked Office for National Statistics ( ONS) mortality and Hospital Episode Statistics ( HES) admission data. Methods We identified cases of suicide and self-harm recorded using appropriate Read codes in the CPRD between 1998 and 2010 in patients aged ≥15 years. Suicides were defined as patients with Read codes for suicide recorded within 95 days of their death. International Classification of Diseases codes were used to identify suicides/hospital admissions for self-harm in the linked ONS and HES data sets. We compared CPRD-derived cases/incidence of suicide and self-harm with those identified from linked ONS mortality and HES data, national suicide incidence rates and published self-harm incidence data. Results Only 26.1% ( n = 590) of the 'true' ( ONS-confirmed) suicides were identified using Read codes. Furthermore, only 55.5% of Read code-identified suicides were confirmed as suicide by the ONS data. Of the HES-identified cases of self-harm, 68.4% were identified in the CPRD using Read codes. The CPRD self-harm rates based on Read codes had similar age and sex distributions to rates observed in self-harm hospital registers, although rates were underestimated in all age groups. Conclusions The CPRD recording of suicide using Read codes is unreliable, with significant inaccuracy (over- and under-reporting). Future CPRD suicide studies should use linked ONS mortality data. The under-reporting of self-harm appears to be less marked. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several age-related traits are associated with shorter telomeres, the structures that cap the end of linear chromosomes. A common polymorphism near the telomere maintenance gene TERT has been associated with several cancers, but relationships with other aging traits such as physical capability have not been reported. As part of the Healthy Ageing across the Life Course (HALCyon) collaborative research programme, men and women aged between 44 and 90 years from nine UK cohorts were genotyped for the single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs401681. We then investigated relationships between the SNP and 30 age-related phenotypes, including cognitive and physical capability, blood lipid levels and lung function, pooling within-study genotypic effects in meta-analyses. No significant associations were found between the SNP and any of the cognitive performance tests (e.g. pooled beta per T allele for word recall z-score = 0.02, 95% CI: −0.01 to 0.04, P-value = 0.12, n = 18 737), physical performance tests (e.g. pooled beta for grip strength = −0.02, 95% CI: −0.045 to 0.006, P-value = 0.14, n = 11 711), blood pressure, lung function or blood test measures. Similarly, no differences in observations were found when considering follow-up measures of cognitive or physical performance after adjusting for its measure at an earlier assessment. The lack of associations between SNP rs401681 and a wide range of age-related phenotypes investigated in this large multicohort study suggests that while this SNP may be associated with cancer, it is not an important contributor to other markers of aging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

WHAT IS ALREADY KNOWN ABOUT THIS SUBJECT • Acute alcohol intoxication often complicates acute organophosphorus pesticide poisoning. • No data are available on how alcohol intoxication affects outcome in acute organophosphorus pesticide poisoning. • In particular, the relationships between plasma alcohol concentration and plasma organophosphorus concentration or outcome are unclear. WHAT THIS STUDY ADDS • Alcohol co-ingestion is associated with higher concentrations of the organophosphorus insecticide dimethoate, probably due to larger ingestions. • The higher concentrations of dimethoate found with alcohol co-ingestion increase the risk of death in dimethoate poisoning. There was no detectable effect of the alcohol itself on outcome. • Efforts to reduce deaths from insecticide self-poisoning may benefit from concurrent efforts to reduce alcohol consumption. AIMS Many patients acutely poisoned with organophosphorus insecticides have co-ingested alcohol. Although clinical experience suggests that this makes management more difficult, the relationship between plasma concentration of alcohol and insecticide is unknown. We aimed to determine whether acute intoxication results in ingestion of larger quantities of insecticide in dimethoate self-poisoning and a worse clinical outcome. METHODS We set up a prospective study of acute dimethoate self-poisoning in Sri Lankan district hospitals. An admission plasma sample was analysed to identify the ingested insecticide; in patients with detectable dimethoate, plasma alcohol was measured. RESULTS Plasma from 37 of 72 (51.4%) dimethoate-poisoned patients had detectable alcohol {median concentration 1.10 g l−1[110 mg dl−1][interquartile range (IQR) 0.78–1.65]} a median of 3 h post ingestion. The median plasma dimethoate concentration was higher in patients who had ingested alcohol [479 µmol l−1 (IQR 268–701) vs. 145 µmol l−1 (IQR 25–337); P < 0.001]. Plasma dimethoate concentration was positively correlated with plasma alcohol (Spearman's ρ= 0.34; P= 0.0032). The median alcohol concentration was higher in the 21 patients who died compared with survivors (0.94 vs. 0.0 g l−1, P= 0.018). Risk of death was greater amongst individuals who consumed alcohol [odds ratio (OR) 4.3, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.2, 16.4]; this risk was abolished by controlling for dimethoate concentration (OR 0.3, 95% CI 0.0, 8.8), indicating that deaths were not due to the direct toxic effects of alcohol. CONCLUSIONS Alcohol co-ingestion is associated with higher plasma concentrations of dimethoate and increased risk of death. Larger studies are required to assess this finding's generalizability, since efforts to reduce deaths from self-poisoning may benefit from concurrent efforts to reduce alcohol consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

WHAT IS ALREADY KNOWN ABOUT THIS SUBJECT • Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) inhibitors are selective nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), purported to demonstrate lower gastrointestinal toxicity than nonselective NSAIDs. • Prescriptions of selective COX-2 inhibitors declined internationally after 2004 following voluntary withdrawal and regulatory intervention because of possible cardiovascular side-effects. • A study in Canada indicated that rates of gastrointestinal haemorrhage actually increased during the period of increasing COX-2 inhibitor prescriptions, due to the increased number of people receiving NSAIDs. WHAT THIS STUDY ADDS • The reduction in availability of COX-2 inhibitors in the UK was temporally associated with a favourable reversal of the trend in emergency hospital admissions for acute myocardial infarction among people aged ≥65 years, but there were no related changes in myocardial infarction mortality trends. • There was some indication that hospital admissions for gastrointestinal haemorrhage among people aged 55–64 years started to increase following a previously declining trend, but this change predated withdrawal/regulation of COX-2 inhibitors by up to 2 years. • The withdrawal/regulation of coxibs did not appear to have any adverse impact on population health and may have been beneficial. AIMS To investigate impacts of withdrawal and regulatory advice regarding cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) inhibitors on UK population rates of gastrointestinal haemorrhage and acute myocardial infarction (MI). METHODS Ecological time series study of prescribing, mortality and hospital admission trends in people aged ≥55 years. RESULTS Withdrawal and regulatory advice limiting COX-2 inhibitor availability from 2004 were temporally associated with reversal of previously unfavourable trends in emergency MI admissions among people aged ≥65 years. Annual admission rate trends changed from +4.6% to −3.1% ( P < 0.001) among women and from +2.1% to −3.8% ( P= 0.003) among men. Absolute changes in average annual trend in the number of individuals aged ≥65 years admitted following MI were from +981 (1999–2004) to −819 (2004–2006) per year for women and from +713 to −995 for men. No change in trend was apparent among people aged 55–64 years, or in MI mortality trends. There was some suggestion of an unfavourable change in admission trends for gastrointestinal haemorrhage among 55−64-year-olds, although this appeared to occur prior to COX-2 inhibitor withdrawal/regulation by up to 2 years. These trends were not apparent in older people, or in gastrointestinal haemorrhage mortality rates. CONCLUSIONS Withdrawal/regulation of COX-2 inhibitors was temporally associated with a favourable reversal of population-level hospital admission trends in MI among people aged ≥65 years. Unfavourable reversal of previous declines in gastrointestinal haemorrhage admissions probably occurred before changes in COX-2 inhibitor availability. Withdrawal/ regulation of COX-2 inhibitors did not appear to have any adverse impact on population health and may have been beneficial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim To document the impact on clinical practice in England of media attention around possible adverse effects of paroxetine. Design Analysis of national selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) prescribing trends and yellow-card adverse drug reaction reports, 2001–2004. Results From a steady state in 2001, paroxetine prescribing declined sharply from April 2002, coinciding with a USA regulatory action; the subsequent decline in paroxetine prescribing was 1.87% per month (95% confidence interval − 2.06, −1.68). Other SSRI prescribing increased by 1% per month until a major UK review of SSRIs in children in December 2003, after which prescribing plateaued. Media publicity was associated with short-term peaks in yellow-card reports related to paroxetine. Conclusion Falls in paroxetine and other SSRI prescribing in the UK coincided, respectively, with regulatory communications from the USA and the UK, but associations may have noncausal or other explanations. Reports of adverse reactions to paroxetine appeared to increase after adverse media publicity about the drug. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we show that, by accounting for the varying influence of just three area indicators of social isolation, it is possible to predict the number of deaths due to suicide and undetermined injuries (most of which are suicides) across a great many areas remarkably closely. The exceptions to this model suggest that in a few unique areas of the country other local, often historical and cultural or intrinsically geographical factors matter also. These findings of the general predictability of suicide matter because suicide is such a common cause of death, particularly for the young. Between 1 January 1981 and 31 December 2000, the underlying cause of the deaths of 130 000 people in Britain were recorded as being directly due to suicide, or in all probability being due to suicide. Collectively, these thousands of personal stories are brought together here to show how a pattern of despair in Britain over this period was spread across the country, affecting different places and different groups in society to differing extents over changing times. The changing geography of despair can be shown to be largely the product of changing economic, social and demographic geographies. This paper is concerned with determining the extent to which the stories of suicide in Britain were more than the sum of thousands of individual acts of misery and the extent to which they reflected the changing social structure of the country. Quantitative analysis is used to identify possible key trends with a more qualitative set of interpretations placed on the possible meanings of these findings. The paper concludes by speculating on how current social trends may influence the future map of the extremes of despair in Britain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]