Psychosocial aspects of accidental poisoning in children

The social and psychological aspects of 100 cases of accidental poisoning admitted to AI-Hikma Children's Hospital, Mosul were compared with 100 controls taken from the same hospital and matched for age and sex. The educational status of the parents disclosed significant effect on the occurrence of accidental poisoning. The same was true with the profession of the fathers, and the degree of crowding in bedrooms. Questioning about family stress factors also disclosed significantly more stress in the families of the affected children than in the controls. Also more behaviour disorders were found among the poisoned children than in their controls