Effects of a drug overdose in a television drama on knowledge of specific dangers of self poisoning: population based surveys

BMJ 1999;318:978-979 ( 10 April )

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Effects of a drug overdose in a television drama on knowledge of specific dangers of self poisoning: population based surveys

Susan O'Connor, consultant psychiatrist, ^a Jonathan J Deeks, medical statistician, ^b Keith Hawton, professor of psychiatry, ^c Sue Simkin, research assistant, ^c Allison Keen, research assistant, ^d Douglas G Altman, director, ^b Greg Philo, research director, ^e Christopher Bulstrode, professor of orthopaedics. ^d

^a United Bristol Healthcare Trust, Directorate of Mental Health, Barrow Hospital, Bristol BS19 3SG, ^b ICRF/NHS Centre for Statistics in Medicine, Institute of Health Sciences, Oxford OX3 7LF, ^c University of Oxford, Department of Psychiatry, Warneford Hospital, Oxford OX3 7JX, ^d University of Oxford, Nuffield Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford OX3 9DU, ^e Glasgow University Media Unit, Glasgow G12 8LF

Correspondence to: Dr O'Connor

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Paracetamol is the drug most commonly taken in overdose in the United Kingdom,¹ causing a substantial number of deaths.²We have investigated the impact of the fictional portrayal ofa potentially fatal paracetamol overdose in the television dramaCasualty (seen by 12.8 million viewers) on short and long termknowledge related to paracetamol poisoning.

Table Removed (Available Only in the Full Text)

Subjects, methods, and results

The episode (described in detail in accompanying article³) depicted a man suffering potentially fatal liver damage afteran untreated paracetamol overdose. Although the particular dose(50 tablets) and delay before presentation (2 days) were mentioned,the episode did not specify minimal toxic doses or maximum safedelays.

At one week and 32 weeks after this episode was broadcast, we sent questionnaires to members of the BBC Television OpinionPanel. Panel members are recruited by structured sampling to berepresentative of the adult UK population and are sent weeklyquestionnaires related to their viewing. At one week after thebroadcast, . . . [Full text of this article]

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