Article DEATH DUE TO POISONING IN LAHORE :-A RETROSPECTIVE STUDY.

ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION Poison is a substance having deleterious effect on living system. The incidence of poisoning is increasing day by day and it is a major problem worldwide and in Pakistan also. Children are equally susceptible to poisoning as are adults. Keeping in view this scenario, the present study was designed to investigate prevalence of poisoning cases over a period of last two years (2015-2016) on the basis of types of poisons, age groups, gender, residency of victims, any suicide note and manner of poisoning by the scrutiny of autopsy cases of death due to poisoning presented in department of forensic medicine & toxicology, KEMU, Lahore. methods The data was extracted from autopsy reports in the department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology KEMU, Lahore. Out of 1533 cases in last two years, 62 cases of poisoning were found. All those 62 cases of poisoning were included and all other cases where death was due to causes other than autopsy were excluded. results  Most of reported cases were accidental(62.9%) while 19.4% were suicidal and 17.7% were homicidal. 61.3% cases were of males while 38.7% cases were of females. There were 69.3% cases in age group of 20-39 years. In none of the case any suicidal note was found. conclusion Most of the deaths due to poisoning was revealed to be accidental. Males were predominantly more affected by poisoning as compared to the females. Death due to poisoning was prevalent in 20-39 years age group.