Série de Casos de Intoxicação por Medicamentos Anticrise Epiléptica: Registros do Centro de Informação e Assistência Toxicológica de Santa Catarina

Abstract

Introduction: Antiseizure medications (ASM) are medications designed to treat epilepsy and have also been used to treat other conditions. ASMs are among the agents most commonly involved in drug intoxications. Objetive: Evaluate the clinical and epidemiological profile of intoxications caused by antiepileptic drugs registered by CIATox/SC and deduce the determining factors for the development of these intoxications. Method: Cross-sectional, descriptive and retrospective study, series type of cases of drug intoxication in the “Antiepileptic” class, registered by CIATox/SC, from January 2016 to december 2020. Results: Total of 2.657 cases were analyzed. The most prevalent causes of intoxication were: suicide attempt 2,284 cases (85.9%), accidental 111 cases (4.17%). In the pre-school age group, accidental poisoning corresponded to 65% of the cases, and in the school and pre-adolescent age group, 57% of cases of suicide attempts were registered. As for the outcome, 2.399 (90.2%) cases of cure, 229 (8.6%) of asymptomatic cases, 25 (0.9%) cases of death. As for the agents involved, in 880 (33.2%) they were antiepileptics alone and 1.777 cases (66.8%) were with the combined class. It is noteworthy that there were 4 deaths involving valproic acid alone. Conclusions: It was observed that in more than 85% of cases, intoxication involving antiseizure medications occurred due to a suicide attempt, the main circumstance being especially in adults. As for the outcome, the lethality rate was 0.9%. In infants and preschoolers, the main circumstance was accidental ingestion. There was a high prevalence of combined intoxication with classes of medications used for psychiatric disorders, such as Anxiolytics, Antidepressants and Antipsychotics.

Key words: intoxication, antiseizure medication, epilepsy, toxicology.