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05-10-2006, 08:56 AM
05/09/2006
A doctor's view on overdoses
By Shannon Sollinger
The 17-year old arrived at the Inova Loudoun Hospital's Lansdowne emergency room last year "screeching like a dog." His heart was beating 170 times a minute, his rectal temperature had dropped to 92 degrees.
"This is not morphine," Dr. Daphne Thomas diagnosed. "Morphine slows the heart rate and pinpoints the pupils. Nothing came through on the tox [toxicology] screen, but I thought this is Coricidin or an antihistamine."
The teen had been partying the night before, said Thomas, who got the job of pulling the youth back from death's door. When he wouldn't get up in the morning, his mother threw ice water on him. Then she called 911.
Thomas "tubed" him to keep him breathing while she went after the other symptoms – tons of fluids, sedatives to slow the heart rate, warming. He spent the next two days with a tube down his throat.
"Being tubed is incredibly uncomfortable when you come out of it" she said. "There's something in your throat, breathing for you. It's not pleasant. You hope that would do it, but this one will go right back to it. He thinks he's in control. They don't understand how toxic this can be."
Thomas has seen a growing number of "C-cubed" [Triple Coricidin] cases in her emergency room since mid-2004. She treated two of the six Seneca Ridge Middle School students who ended up in the emergency room last week after taking Coricidin to get high.
Over the counter does not equal risk-free, Thomas said. Even at recommended doses, dextromethorphan (DXM), the active ingredient in Coricidin and other over-the-counter cold and cough remedies, has side effects -- dizziness, drowsiness, nervousness, upset stomach, vomiting and stomach pain. The National Institutes of Health Web site advises limiting any dose of DXM to 120 milligrams in a 24-hour period.
Overdosing can produce a high. It can also lead to dizziness, nausea, seizures, panic attacks, brain damage, addiction, coma and death.
One Coricidin HBP Cough and Cold tablet carries 30 milligrams of DXM. A blister pack – 16 tablets – totals 480 milligrams.
"Some of [the teens] are taking two packets," Thomas added. "They never tell you how many they took, but someone finds the empty packages near them."
The drug stimulates the central nervous system and some of the users get high without ending up in the hospital. Others develop toxic psychosis and kidney failure. Any heart rate faster than 100 is dangerous.
Thomas said the young man she treated was the worst case she has seen, but she is seeing more and more cases of elevated heart rate and psychosis. "It's anecdotal that he took it, but all the evidence points to it," she said.
http://www.timescommunity.com/site/tab1.cf...id=506035&rfi=6 (http://www.timescommunity.com/site/tab1.cfm?newsid=16612174&BRD=2553&PAG=461&dept_id=506035&rfi=6)
A doctor's view on overdoses
By Shannon Sollinger
The 17-year old arrived at the Inova Loudoun Hospital's Lansdowne emergency room last year "screeching like a dog." His heart was beating 170 times a minute, his rectal temperature had dropped to 92 degrees.
"This is not morphine," Dr. Daphne Thomas diagnosed. "Morphine slows the heart rate and pinpoints the pupils. Nothing came through on the tox [toxicology] screen, but I thought this is Coricidin or an antihistamine."
The teen had been partying the night before, said Thomas, who got the job of pulling the youth back from death's door. When he wouldn't get up in the morning, his mother threw ice water on him. Then she called 911.
Thomas "tubed" him to keep him breathing while she went after the other symptoms – tons of fluids, sedatives to slow the heart rate, warming. He spent the next two days with a tube down his throat.
"Being tubed is incredibly uncomfortable when you come out of it" she said. "There's something in your throat, breathing for you. It's not pleasant. You hope that would do it, but this one will go right back to it. He thinks he's in control. They don't understand how toxic this can be."
Thomas has seen a growing number of "C-cubed" [Triple Coricidin] cases in her emergency room since mid-2004. She treated two of the six Seneca Ridge Middle School students who ended up in the emergency room last week after taking Coricidin to get high.
Over the counter does not equal risk-free, Thomas said. Even at recommended doses, dextromethorphan (DXM), the active ingredient in Coricidin and other over-the-counter cold and cough remedies, has side effects -- dizziness, drowsiness, nervousness, upset stomach, vomiting and stomach pain. The National Institutes of Health Web site advises limiting any dose of DXM to 120 milligrams in a 24-hour period.
Overdosing can produce a high. It can also lead to dizziness, nausea, seizures, panic attacks, brain damage, addiction, coma and death.
One Coricidin HBP Cough and Cold tablet carries 30 milligrams of DXM. A blister pack – 16 tablets – totals 480 milligrams.
"Some of [the teens] are taking two packets," Thomas added. "They never tell you how many they took, but someone finds the empty packages near them."
The drug stimulates the central nervous system and some of the users get high without ending up in the hospital. Others develop toxic psychosis and kidney failure. Any heart rate faster than 100 is dangerous.
Thomas said the young man she treated was the worst case she has seen, but she is seeing more and more cases of elevated heart rate and psychosis. "It's anecdotal that he took it, but all the evidence points to it," she said.
http://www.timescommunity.com/site/tab1.cf...id=506035&rfi=6 (http://www.timescommunity.com/site/tab1.cfm?newsid=16612174&BRD=2553&PAG=461&dept_id=506035&rfi=6)