Introduction: Poisoning is an important health hazard and one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Aims & Objectives: The study aims to gather epidemiological information regarding poisoning in Manipal such as the incidence, age, gender, religion, type of poisoning, circumstance of poisoning and outcome, so as to formulate recommendations that could probably help to reduce the morbidity and mortality due to poisoning, and preventable health hazard. Materials & Methods: The study comprises 592 cases of acute poisonings; admitted to Kasturba Hospital, Manipal, which is a tertiary care teaching hospital, situated in coastal Karnataka, South India, for a period of 3 years (January 2006 to December 2008). Results: Of the total 1,49,454 patients admitted in the hospital for treatment during the three years study period, 592 patients were for to acute poisoning. This was less than 1% of all admissions. Of these 57% were males and 43% females. The majority (30%) cases were from age group of 21–30 years. Most (63.7%) poisonings were suicidal and only 35.8% were accidental in nature. The mortality outcome was 66 out of 592 cases. It is important to realize that the present study is restricted to this tertiary health care centre; hence it may be thought to be difficult to draw conclusions for the whole population of Udupi District. However, it emphasizes the need for giving priority for prevention and treatment of poisoning in the health care of the population of Karnataka especially of Udupi District.

Key words: Poisoning; Pattern of poisoning; Suicide; Mortality; Organophosphorous poison.