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Poisoning due to Chinese proprietary medicines

Department of Clinical Pharmacology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Prince of Wales Hospital

Kenneth KC Lee

Department of Pharmacy, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, New Territories, Hong Kong

Albert YW Chan

Department of Chemical Pathology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Prince of Wales Hospital, Shatin, New Territories

Julian AJH Critchley

Department of Clinical Pharmacology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Prince of Wales Hospital

1 To determine the toxic potentials of those Chinese pro prietary medicines (CPM) which are commonly used for self-poisoning by adults in Hong Kong, all patients admit ted to four of the eight general medical wards at the Prince of Wales Hospital between January 1988 and December 1993 were retrospectively studied.

2 There were 54 women and 17 men with their age rang ing from 15 to 86 years. Twenty-three subjects (32%) also took alcohol, chemicals or drugs. Of the 51 subjects (72%) who had taken topical medicaments, 22 had no symptoms while 28 had minor features of gastrointestinal irritation (n = 26), mild (n = 2) or severe (n = 1) salicylate poisoning. Of the 17 subjects (24%) who had taken CPM tablets/cap sules, nine had mild symptoms including nausea/vomiting and drowsiness. The three remaining patients (4%) who had ingested liquid CPM preparations were asymptomatic. Elevated plasma salicylate or paracetamol concentrations (> 0.1 mmol l^-1l) were found in some patients who had taken topical medicaments and CPM tablets/capsules, respectively. All the 71 patients completely recovered. 3 Most of the CPM used for self-poisoning in Hong Kong were of low to moderate toxicity except for those contain ing wintergreen oil (methyl salicylate).

Key Words: Chinese proprietary medicines • self-poisoning • Hong Kong

Human & Experimental Toxicology, Vol. 14, No. 5, 434-436 (1995)
DOI: 10.1177/096032719501400508


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