A 14-year review of children treated for poisoning in a Turkish pediatric intensive care unit has found that suicide attempts accounted for more than four in ten admissions, with older age and female sex the strongest independent predictors of intentional self-poisoning. The retrospective study, published in BMC Pediatrics, analyzed 450 patients admitted to the intensive care unit at Çukurova University Faculty of Medicine between January 1, 2011, and December 31, 2024.
Most poisonings occurred at home, accounting for 96.9% of cases, and nearly all exposures, 99.3%, happened through oral ingestion. Accidental poisoning made up 57.1% of admissions, while 42.9% involved suicide attempts, a proportion the authors describe as highlighting the mental health vulnerability of adolescents admitted to intensive care after poisoning.
Central nervous system drugs were the most frequently implicated agents in the cohort, reflecting the range of medications accessible to children and adolescents in household settings. The study also documented which clinical factors predicted the most severe outcomes. Organ failure developed in 7.6% of patients, and mortality was 0.9%, figures that underscore both the seriousness of poisoning as a pediatric emergency and the capacity of intensive care to limit fatal outcomes.
Increasing age doubled the odds of a suicide attempt, with an adjusted odds ratio of 2.00, and female sex raised the odds 3.56-fold. These associations held after adjustment for other variables in the model, indicating that age and sex carry distinct predictive weight when clinicians assess a child admitted after poisoning.
For organ failure, the strongest predictors were electrocardiographic abnormalities, which raised the odds 4.43-fold, and cardiovascular drug poisoning, which raised the odds 5.48-fold.
Treatment escalation, the third outcome modeled, was independently associated with three factors: suicide attempt, which raised the odds 1.66-fold; presentation more than one hour after exposure, which raised the odds 1.73-fold; and organophosphate poisoning, which raised the odds 2.74-fold.
The study’s conclusions emphasize that pediatric poisonings showed distinct age-related patterns across the 14-year period.
They also call for age-specific preventive strategies: household safety measures aimed at younger children, whose poisonings are overwhelmingly accidental and home-based, and mental health support aimed at adolescents, whose intentional exposures drive a large fraction of intensive care admissions.
The retrospective design means the study can identify associations but cannot establish that any single factor caused a particular outcome. All 450 patients were drawn from a single tertiary pediatric intensive care unit, so the findings reflect the referral patterns and population of one center over 14 years. Nevertheless, the large cohort and the use of multivariable models to isolate independent predictors provide a detailed picture of how pediatric poisoning presents, which agents are most often involved, and which clinical signs at admission signal the patients who will need the most intensive treatment.
Subject of Research: A 14-year retrospective study of pediatric poisoning cases in a tertiary pediatric intensive care unit examining demographic patterns, risk factors for intentional self-poisoning, organ failure, and treatment escalation.
Article Title: Clinical characteristics, associated factors, and management of pediatric poisoning in a tertiary pediatric intensive care unit: a 14-year retrospective study
Article References: Ateş, E., Bilen, S., Yılmaz, H. L., Ekinci, F., Horoz, Ö. Ö., & Yıldızdaş, R. D. (2026). Clinical characteristics, associated factors, and management of pediatric poisoning in a tertiary pediatric intensive care unit: a 14-year retrospective study. BMC Pediatrics. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12887-026-07894-0
Image Credits: AI Generated
DOI: 10.1186/s12887-026-07894-0
Keywords: pediatric poisoning, suicide attempt, organ failure, treatment escalation, retrospective study, pediatric intensive care, multivariable logistic regression, household safety, adolescent mental health, cardiac monitoring, organophosphate poisoning, BMC Pediatrics
News Source: Harold Sullivan. (November 4, 2026). Poisoning in Children: 14-Year ICU Study Maps Risk Factors. Scienmag.
