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03-13-2005, 10:16 AM
COUGH SYRUP: Health reports cite a growing and dangerous trend among Inland teens.
12:00 AM PST on Sunday, March 13, 2005
By KARIN MARRIOTT / The Press-Enterprise
Dextromethorphan is a cough suppressant commonly found in over-the-counter medicines like Robitussin and Coricidin and abused primarily by teenagers.
Reported cases of abuse
Year Age 13-19 All ages
2000 1,623 2,523
2001 2,276 3,383
2002 2,881 4,020
2003 3,271 4,382
In the 1960s, the manufacturer voluntarily pulled Romilar, dextromethorphan in pill form, after an upswing of abuse by teenagers.
What do to:
Watch for changes in behavior, friends or attitude about spending time with family or at school.
Regulate medicines and symptoms when your child complains of a cold or flu. Is that child requesting a certain kind of cough syrup? Are they home alone when sick? How often?
Avoid stockpiling medicines; lock up prescriptions and any drug that might abused.
Keep track of how much is in each bottle or container in your medicine cabinet.
Monitor your child's Internet use. Look out for suspicious Web sites and e-mails that seem to be promoting the abuse of DXM or other drugs.
Talk with your child about drug use and abuse.
Help:
Vista Guidance Centers, San Bernardino County, (909) 792-0747
Loma Linda University Behavioral Medicine Center, (909) 558-9200
www.drugfreeamerica.org
Sources: Vista Guidance Centers; Loma Linda University Behavioral Medicine Center; California Poison Control System
After coroner's officials removed Erick Myrman's body from the bedroom of his Yucaipa home, Nick Myrman began searching for what killed his healthy 20-year-old son.
The father found an empty wine bottle and one of crème de menthe. In a backpack, he discovered two empty bottles of the drug that had sent his son to rehab: over-the-counter cough syrup.
Almost two months after Erick Myrman died on Valentine's Day last year, autopsy results would show the cause of death: dextromethorphan and diphenhydramine, common ingredients in cough syrup, combined with alcohol.
California poison control officials reported a 10-fold increase in the number of calls received between 1999 and 2003 regarding "dexing" or "robotripping" -- terms used for the LSD-like high derived from abusing medicines such as Robitussin and Coricidin. The numbers continue to rise, authorities said.
Local behavioral health experts said the abuse of the cough suppressant dextromethorphan, or DXM, increased about 50 percent between 2003 and this year in areas such as Redlands and Yucaipa in San Bernardino County and Banning and Beaumont in Riverside County. Death and brain damage are among the permanent consequences authorities attribute to the drug.
"We didn't have a clue," Nick Myrman said, recalling the time he and his wife, Donna, first discovered their only son was abusing DXM. "Donna and I thought we were acutely aware of problems that would be caused by drugs. ... We thought of ourselves as being on the ball, ahead of the game ... After all, this isn't even an illegal substance."
On the Rise
The abuse of DXM is so popular that the Internet has abundant sites instructing would-be users on how much to take, what brands of cough medicines to buy and how to extract the substance.
Nationally, news reports of DXM abuse recount tales ranging from overdose deaths to the story of a 14-year-old Pennsylvania boy who, while high on the drug, killed his brother with a hammer blow to the head.
Last month, Sen. S. Joseph Simitian, D-Palo Alto, introduced SB307, legislation that would prohibit the sales of medicines containing DXM to minors.
Statistics on abuse of the medicine are difficult to obtain because few agencies track the abuse of dextromethorphan and other similar drugs, according to the National Drug Intelligence Center, a branch of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.
Still, the agency reports that teenagers and young adults are the principal abusers of the cough suppressant and provides an abundance of information at www.usdoj.gov, the Web site for the U.S. Department of Justice.
Ilene B. Anderson, a doctor of pharmacology tracking DXM abuse for the California Poison Control System, said she noticed abuse begin to surface in 1999. It has not subsided, she said.
"It's a serious problem, and it's growing as far as reports to the poison-control center," Anderson said by phone.
In 1999, DXM abuse accounted for 3 percent of the teenage drug-abuse calls the center received. In 2003, the number was 26 percent, Anderson said. The center took about 4,900 calls about teen drug abuse in the five-year period.
Local Trend
Vista Guidance Centers, a nonprofit behavioral health agency that contracts with school districts in Riverside, San Bernardino and Los Angeles counties, has noticed a 50 percent increase in the number of teenagers abusing DXMsince 2003, Vista operations directorSarah Eberhardt said.
A Vista survey completed last month showed that four out of 10 students aged 13 or older in the Yucaipa-Calimesa and Redlands school districts said they had abused DXM at least once. Seven of 10 students knew someone who had.
The same numbers held true for students in Banning and Beaumont, Eberhardt said. The center polled about 200 students in each of the districts.
DXM's popularity is trickling down from high school to middle school, Vista officials said.
"This is something that's pretty persistent throughout all (three) counties," Eberhardt said. "A while back it used to be glue and paint and now its Robitussin and Freon."
Daniel Dickerson, psychiatry resident at the Loma Linda University Behavioral Medicine Center, said he began noticing an increase in DXM abuse among teens about four years ago.
The center provides treatment to residents in Riverside and San Bernardino counties.
"Kids are adding this on to our routine questions of marijuana, alcohol, cocaine (use)," Dickerson said by phone. "They're saying, 'Hey, I use Coricidin.' "
Experts give many reasons for the attraction to cold medicines: They are cheap, easy to buy -- and legal. Abusers say higher doses can cause a warped perception of time, delusional thinking and hallucinations. The high is similar to that of PCP and LSD, experts said.
There can also be a "total mind-body disassociation where they claim to be in contact with other gods, alien beings, a very bizarre world," Dickerson said. "It's very similar to LSD. Of course, when you're experiencing those types of symptoms, very often they end up in the emergency room."
Changed Lives
DXM abuse does not appear to be physiologically addictive and won't cause withdrawals, Dickerson said.
The bad news, authorities said, is that abuse can cause permanent brain, liver or other damage, coma and death.
Erick Myrman attended UCR and Crafton Hills College and lived in one of Yucaipa's most affluent neighborhoods.
He received nearly straight A's before graduating from Yucaipa High School in 2002, earned dozens of trophies for basketball and golf, and worked steadily from the age of 15. He loved the family's three dogs and many cats, his father said.
His sister, Kathryn, now 18, said her brother told her he was taking the cough suppressant. She warned him to stop but said she also had a difficult time seeing it as very dangerous.
"I mean, it's cough syrup. You take it to get better," she said last week.
After his parents discovered the DXM abuse, Erick Myrman entered a 10-week drug rehab program, his father said. Nick Myrman said his son would seem fine for a while, then fall back into using DXM. But toward the end of his life, things seemed back to normal, his father said.
On Feb. 13, 2004, Erick kissed his mother, Donna, about 9:30 p.m. and said good night. He seemed to be in a good mood.
The next day, about noon, Donna and Kathryn Myrman found Erick face down in his bed.
Nick Mryman said his son's death has sent a cautionary message to friends and acquaintances.
"I know actually from first-hand experience," Nick Myrman said, "from individuals who come up and ring my doorbell, that Erick's death changed their lives ... if it could happen to Erick, it could happen to them."
http://www.pe.com/breakingnews/local/stori...ex13.a16ef.html (http://www.pe.com/breakingnews/local/stories/PE_News_Local_H_dex13.a16ef.html)
12:00 AM PST on Sunday, March 13, 2005
By KARIN MARRIOTT / The Press-Enterprise
Dextromethorphan is a cough suppressant commonly found in over-the-counter medicines like Robitussin and Coricidin and abused primarily by teenagers.
Reported cases of abuse
Year Age 13-19 All ages
2000 1,623 2,523
2001 2,276 3,383
2002 2,881 4,020
2003 3,271 4,382
In the 1960s, the manufacturer voluntarily pulled Romilar, dextromethorphan in pill form, after an upswing of abuse by teenagers.
What do to:
Watch for changes in behavior, friends or attitude about spending time with family or at school.
Regulate medicines and symptoms when your child complains of a cold or flu. Is that child requesting a certain kind of cough syrup? Are they home alone when sick? How often?
Avoid stockpiling medicines; lock up prescriptions and any drug that might abused.
Keep track of how much is in each bottle or container in your medicine cabinet.
Monitor your child's Internet use. Look out for suspicious Web sites and e-mails that seem to be promoting the abuse of DXM or other drugs.
Talk with your child about drug use and abuse.
Help:
Vista Guidance Centers, San Bernardino County, (909) 792-0747
Loma Linda University Behavioral Medicine Center, (909) 558-9200
www.drugfreeamerica.org
Sources: Vista Guidance Centers; Loma Linda University Behavioral Medicine Center; California Poison Control System
After coroner's officials removed Erick Myrman's body from the bedroom of his Yucaipa home, Nick Myrman began searching for what killed his healthy 20-year-old son.
The father found an empty wine bottle and one of crème de menthe. In a backpack, he discovered two empty bottles of the drug that had sent his son to rehab: over-the-counter cough syrup.
Almost two months after Erick Myrman died on Valentine's Day last year, autopsy results would show the cause of death: dextromethorphan and diphenhydramine, common ingredients in cough syrup, combined with alcohol.
California poison control officials reported a 10-fold increase in the number of calls received between 1999 and 2003 regarding "dexing" or "robotripping" -- terms used for the LSD-like high derived from abusing medicines such as Robitussin and Coricidin. The numbers continue to rise, authorities said.
Local behavioral health experts said the abuse of the cough suppressant dextromethorphan, or DXM, increased about 50 percent between 2003 and this year in areas such as Redlands and Yucaipa in San Bernardino County and Banning and Beaumont in Riverside County. Death and brain damage are among the permanent consequences authorities attribute to the drug.
"We didn't have a clue," Nick Myrman said, recalling the time he and his wife, Donna, first discovered their only son was abusing DXM. "Donna and I thought we were acutely aware of problems that would be caused by drugs. ... We thought of ourselves as being on the ball, ahead of the game ... After all, this isn't even an illegal substance."
On the Rise
The abuse of DXM is so popular that the Internet has abundant sites instructing would-be users on how much to take, what brands of cough medicines to buy and how to extract the substance.
Nationally, news reports of DXM abuse recount tales ranging from overdose deaths to the story of a 14-year-old Pennsylvania boy who, while high on the drug, killed his brother with a hammer blow to the head.
Last month, Sen. S. Joseph Simitian, D-Palo Alto, introduced SB307, legislation that would prohibit the sales of medicines containing DXM to minors.
Statistics on abuse of the medicine are difficult to obtain because few agencies track the abuse of dextromethorphan and other similar drugs, according to the National Drug Intelligence Center, a branch of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.
Still, the agency reports that teenagers and young adults are the principal abusers of the cough suppressant and provides an abundance of information at www.usdoj.gov, the Web site for the U.S. Department of Justice.
Ilene B. Anderson, a doctor of pharmacology tracking DXM abuse for the California Poison Control System, said she noticed abuse begin to surface in 1999. It has not subsided, she said.
"It's a serious problem, and it's growing as far as reports to the poison-control center," Anderson said by phone.
In 1999, DXM abuse accounted for 3 percent of the teenage drug-abuse calls the center received. In 2003, the number was 26 percent, Anderson said. The center took about 4,900 calls about teen drug abuse in the five-year period.
Local Trend
Vista Guidance Centers, a nonprofit behavioral health agency that contracts with school districts in Riverside, San Bernardino and Los Angeles counties, has noticed a 50 percent increase in the number of teenagers abusing DXMsince 2003, Vista operations directorSarah Eberhardt said.
A Vista survey completed last month showed that four out of 10 students aged 13 or older in the Yucaipa-Calimesa and Redlands school districts said they had abused DXM at least once. Seven of 10 students knew someone who had.
The same numbers held true for students in Banning and Beaumont, Eberhardt said. The center polled about 200 students in each of the districts.
DXM's popularity is trickling down from high school to middle school, Vista officials said.
"This is something that's pretty persistent throughout all (three) counties," Eberhardt said. "A while back it used to be glue and paint and now its Robitussin and Freon."
Daniel Dickerson, psychiatry resident at the Loma Linda University Behavioral Medicine Center, said he began noticing an increase in DXM abuse among teens about four years ago.
The center provides treatment to residents in Riverside and San Bernardino counties.
"Kids are adding this on to our routine questions of marijuana, alcohol, cocaine (use)," Dickerson said by phone. "They're saying, 'Hey, I use Coricidin.' "
Experts give many reasons for the attraction to cold medicines: They are cheap, easy to buy -- and legal. Abusers say higher doses can cause a warped perception of time, delusional thinking and hallucinations. The high is similar to that of PCP and LSD, experts said.
There can also be a "total mind-body disassociation where they claim to be in contact with other gods, alien beings, a very bizarre world," Dickerson said. "It's very similar to LSD. Of course, when you're experiencing those types of symptoms, very often they end up in the emergency room."
Changed Lives
DXM abuse does not appear to be physiologically addictive and won't cause withdrawals, Dickerson said.
The bad news, authorities said, is that abuse can cause permanent brain, liver or other damage, coma and death.
Erick Myrman attended UCR and Crafton Hills College and lived in one of Yucaipa's most affluent neighborhoods.
He received nearly straight A's before graduating from Yucaipa High School in 2002, earned dozens of trophies for basketball and golf, and worked steadily from the age of 15. He loved the family's three dogs and many cats, his father said.
His sister, Kathryn, now 18, said her brother told her he was taking the cough suppressant. She warned him to stop but said she also had a difficult time seeing it as very dangerous.
"I mean, it's cough syrup. You take it to get better," she said last week.
After his parents discovered the DXM abuse, Erick Myrman entered a 10-week drug rehab program, his father said. Nick Myrman said his son would seem fine for a while, then fall back into using DXM. But toward the end of his life, things seemed back to normal, his father said.
On Feb. 13, 2004, Erick kissed his mother, Donna, about 9:30 p.m. and said good night. He seemed to be in a good mood.
The next day, about noon, Donna and Kathryn Myrman found Erick face down in his bed.
Nick Mryman said his son's death has sent a cautionary message to friends and acquaintances.
"I know actually from first-hand experience," Nick Myrman said, "from individuals who come up and ring my doorbell, that Erick's death changed their lives ... if it could happen to Erick, it could happen to them."
http://www.pe.com/breakingnews/local/stori...ex13.a16ef.html (http://www.pe.com/breakingnews/local/stories/PE_News_Local_H_dex13.a16ef.html)