Abstract
Fifty-two families were involved in a retrospective study of childhood poisoning in 1963. The study population consisted of 20 poison repeaters, 19 single ingestors and 13 controls and their families. The data indicated that childhood poisoning was the result of tan abnormal parent-child interaction characterized by behavior problems in the child, limited parent-child relatedness, marital tension and a tense and distant family atmosphere.
The present study was undertaken to determine if these children and their families could still be differentiated by psychosocial variables, 5 years after the initial study and 7 to 10 years after the poisoning episode.
During the interim none of the subjects ingested poisons, nor did their siblings and there was not a shit to other types of accidents. Poison repeaters were continuing to have more behavior problems than single ingestors and they in turn were more deviant than controls. The families could not be differentiated socioeconomically, but there continued to be more stress in the homes of the poisoned subjects, especially therepeaters.
In conclusion, childhood poisoning, especially when repetitive was found to be related not only to behavior problems of the child and family maladaptation at the time of the ingestions, but also significantly predicts later problems in the child and his family. The present study offers further evidence that childhood poisoning is more than just a chance event and may be the result of pathological parent-child relationship that has long lasting consequence requiring early intervention.
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Margolis, J., Solnit, A. Psychosocial Study of Childhood Poisoning: A Five-year Follow-up. Pediatr Res 4, 475 (1970). https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-197009000-00162
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-197009000-00162