Patients who are injured as a result of a suicide attempt are often taken to critical care centers. Many of them have acute drug intoxication due to drug overdose. In particular, patients with acute intoxication due to an overdose of psychotropic drugs account for a large proportion of the patients taken to critical care centers after a suicide attempt. The length of hospitalization of patients with acute drug intoxication after they receive treatment for physical conditions during the acute stage is often shorter than that of patients with serious physical disorders. The number of suicidal persons has been on a downward trend in recent years thanks to various suicide prevention measures focusing on the cooperation between critical care centers and psychiatric care. However, careful consideration and development of measures are continuously needed because patients with acute drug intoxication still account for a large proportion of the patients who are taken to critical care centers. The medical institutions that provide care to the patients after being treated for physical conditions at critical care centers also seem to largely affect the prognosis of the patients. In particular, the ideal form of the cooperation between critical care centers and mental clinics should be considered because a large proportion of patients who attempted suicide regularly visit a mental clinic. There have been concerns about the increase in the number of suicidal persons and the increase in the proportion of young people attempting suicide because of the effects of COVID-19 since fiscal 2020. In this study, we examined the clinical features of the patients who were taken to critical care centers for acute drug intoxication due to drug overdose, which accounts for a large proportion of suicide attempts. We also examined future suicide prevention measures.
 Authors' abstract