Calls about self-destructive acts among young women aged 15–19 stand out in the Poison Information Centre's call statistics. These calls increased by over 10 percent from 2024 to 2025, from 4,301 inquiries to 4,761 inquiries. The centre received over 10,000 inquiries about adolescents who overdosed or misdosed medication in 2025. A pharmacist at the centre noted a worrying trend with a sharp increase in calls about self-destructive behavior among young women, where every other call about adolescents concerns self-destructive acts, adding that their call statistics do not give the whole picture but are an important signal of a growing societal problem.
Drug overdoses are overwhelmingly the most common in self-destructive acts, and overdoses with analgesics (such as paracetamol, ibuprofen, and tramadol) and/or psychoanaleptics (such as antidepressants and ADHD medications) accounted for the majority of the inquiries in 2025. The majority of the calls are about poisonings with medications, with paracetamol being the most common inquiry in 2025, at 7,449 calls.
Concerning trends have emerged in specific medications, including tramadol and pregabalin. Calls about the opioid-based pain-relieving medication tramadol increased clearly, from 483 to 760 calls. Inquiries about pregabalin, used to treat epilepsy, nerve pain, and anxiety, also increased.
The intentional nature of adolescent overdoses is a key concern, with a large majority (80 percent) of the inquiries about adolescents involving intentional intake. In the majority of all inquiries about adolescents, the centre recommended the affected person to seek healthcare or gave treatment advice to healthcare personnel treating the patient.
Medication storage and parental awareness gaps have been revealed by a previous survey. A Novus survey showed that only one in ten parents of teenagers store the home's medications inaccessible to their teenagers. The same survey showed that every other parent of a teenager does not know that over-the-counter medications are sometimes used by young people who want to perform a self-harm act. A pharmacist emphasized two important messages to parents: to lock up the medications at home and to make the family's medications their responsibility.
Additional context includes the centre's daily call volume and medication confusion incidents. On average, the Poison Information Centre answered 322 inquiries per day. Over 800 calls were about teenagers (15–19 years) confusing medication at home and taking the wrong dose.
Key unknowns remain about the causes, outcomes, and policy responses. It is unclear what specific factors are driving the sharp increase in self-destructive behavior calls among young women aged 15–19. The number of inquiries that resulted in serious health outcomes or fatalities has not been confirmed, and demographic breakdowns such as by region or socioeconomic status are not detailed in the statistics. Whether interventions or policies are being implemented to address this growing societal problem is also unknown, and comparisons to trends beyond 2024 to assess if this is a new peak or part of a longer-term pattern have not been provided.