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==<font color="red">Contact Poison Control at</font> '''1-800-222-1222'''==
==<font color="red">Contact Poison Control at</font> '''1-800-222-1222'''==


==[[Poison control center| Look up your local Poison Contorl Center in the United States]]==
==[[Poison control center| Look up your local Poison Control Center in the United States]]==


==[http://www.who.int/ipcs/poisons/centre/directory/en/ Look up a poison control center anywhere in the world]==
==[http://www.who.int/ipcs/poisons/centre/directory/en/ Look up a poison control center anywhere in the world]==

Revision as of 13:38, 9 February 2009

Editor-In-Chief: Scott Everett, M.D., Pharm. D. Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine, Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, Winston Salem, NC Email Dr. Everett by clicking here

Associate Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1] Phone:617-632-7753


Contact Poison Control at 1-800-222-1222

Look up your local Poison Control Center in the United States

Look up a poison control center anywhere in the world

Report a side effect to the FDA at MedWatch Read more about MedWatch here

Search for Drug-Drug Interactions

Overview

The damaging physiologic effects of ingestion, inhalation, or other exposure to a broad range of chemicals, including pesticides, heavy metals, gases/vapors, drugs, and a variety of common household substances, such as bleach and ammonia. Included are accidental overdoses of drugs, a wrong drug given or taken in error, and a drug taken inadvertently.

Opiate use and misuse appear to be driving the increase in poisoning deaths. Alcohol and other drug abuse are also important public health issues with enormous impacts on many types of injury and violence.

Specific Drug Overdoses

Below is a listing of overdose information related to various drugs in alphabetical order:

Causes of Unintentional Opiate-related Poisoning Deaths

Legitimate medical treatment with opiates

Pain is very common. About 24% of U. S. adults reported moderate to extreme pain in the past month.7 In 2005, about 19% of the 50 million United States adults who used Express Scripts, a large commercial pharmacy benefit program, received a prescription for opiates.8

Chronic opiate use is linked to the development of tolerance to its analgesic or pain relieving effect.9 Tolerance is defined as a decrease in a drug’s effect over time so that larger doses are required to achieve the same effect. Chronic opiate use also may be associated with hyperalgesia, an increase in abnormal pain sensitivity.9 In an attempt to maintain pain relief, the combination of tolerance and hyperalgesia may lead to rampant dose escalation.9

Respiratory depression, a decrease in the rate or depth of a patient’s breathing, is one of the side effects or risks of opiate use. Opiate poisoning deaths are often due to respiratory failure from respiratory depression. As with pain relief, tolerance to respiratory depression develops with chronic opiate use. However, research suggests that tolerance to respiratory depression is incomplete and may develop more slowly than tolerance to the pain relieving effect.10

Other risk factors for unintentional opiate-related poisoning include:

  • Concurrent use of other central nervous system depressants like benzodiazepines and sedative-hypnotics.
  • The existence of other medical conditions associated with compromised respiratory function such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, congestive heart failure, and sleep apnea.

Misuse of Prescription Opiates

In addition to legitimately prescribed opiates, prescription opiates can be obtained in various other ways:

  • From a friend or relative with a prescription.
  • Obtained from emergency rooms through fraudulent drug-seeking means.
  • Purchased on the street or from the Internet.
  • Stolen from pharmacies.

During treatment for chronic pain, prescription opiates can be misused by taking more than the prescribed dose or by combining opiates with illicit drugs or alcohol. Nationally, the U. S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s Drug Abuse Warning Network tracks drug-related emergency department visits. These visits relate to both misuse and abuse of drugs. For prescription drugs, the definition of ‘non-medical’ use includes:

  • Taking more than the prescribed dose of a prescription drug.
  • Taking a drug prescribed for another individual.
  • Deliberate poisoning with a drug by another person.
  • Documented misuse or abuse of a prescription drug.

Opiates accounted for about one-third of all non-medical prescription drug use visits, making them the most frequently reported drugs. In 2006 in King and Snohomish counties, there were 3,529 reports of prescription opiate emergency department visits. The visits were identified as:

  • Drug abuse (54%).
  • Adverse reaction (18%).
  • Accidental overmedication (18%).

Childhood Poisoning

While the highest death rates occur among adults, the majority of reports are for non-fatal poison exposures to children under six years.

  • About 90% of the incidents occurred in a home.
  • 52% of the incidents occurred to a child under six years.
  • The majority of all exposure calls (83%) were handled without transfer to a health care facility.
  • 94% percent of exposure calls to children ages six or under were handled without transfer to a health care facility.

The most common substances involved in possible exposures are medications. For example, the top three includes analgesics, topical preparations, and cold and cough preparations. Other common exposures include personal care products, and cosmetics.

References

1 D Ives, T. J., Chelminski, P. R., Hammett-Stabler, C. A., Malone, R. M., Perhac, J. S., Potisek, N. M. & et al. (2006). Predictors of opioid misuse in patients with chronic pain: a prospective cohort study. BMC Health Services Research, 6, 46.

2 Washington State Department of Health. Health of Washington State. (2007). Poisoning & Drug Overdose chapter in Injury and Violence Section. Retrieved on January 10, 2008 from http://www.doh.wa.gov/hws/IV2007.shtm.

3 Paulozzi, L., Budnitz, D. S., & Xi.Y. (2006). Increasing deaths from opioid analgesics in the United States. Pharmacoepideniology and Drug Safety, 15(9), 618-27.

4 North Carolina; Utah; Maine; New Mexico; and Clark County, Nevada.

5 Drug Enforcement Administration. U.S. Department of Justice. Automation of Reports and Consolidated Orders System. Retail Drug Summary. Retrieved from http://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/arcos/retail_drug_summary/index.html. Approximate number of doses is available. The use and abuse of prescription-type opiates in Washington State. The Alcohol and Drug Abuse Institute, University of Washington, Seattle. Retrieved on April 24, 2007, from http://depts.washington.edu/adai/pubs/arb/PrescriptionOpiates_March30_2007.pdf.

6 Franklin, G. M., Mai, J., Wickizer, T., Turner, J. A., Fulton-Kehoe, D. & Grant, L. (2005). Opioid dosing trends and mortality in Washington State workers’ compensation, 1996-2002. American Journal of Industrial Medicine, 48(2), 91-9.

7 Wells, K.B., Roland, S. & Burnam, A. (2005). National survey of alcohol, drug, and mental health problems. Health-care for Communities. (2000-2001). ICPSR version. Los Angeles: University of California, Los Angeles, Health Services Research Center [producer]. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor] (2005).

8 Motheral, B., Cox, E., Mager, D., Henderson, R. & Martinez, R. (2002). Prescription drug atlas. Table 3.1 Retrieved on April 20, 2007, from http://www.expressscripts.com/ourcompany/news/outcomesresearch/prescriptiondrugatlas/.

9 Ballantyne, J. C. (2007). Opioid analgesia: perspectives on right use and utility. Pain Physician, 10, 479-491.

10 Marks, C. E. & Goldring, R. M. (1973). Chronic hypercapnia during methadone maintenance. The American Review of Respiratory Disease, 108, 1088-1093.

11 Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2006). Results from the 2005 National Survey on Drug Use and Health: National Findings. Office of Applied Studies: Rockville, MD. Retrieved February 12, 2007, from http://www.oas.samhsa.gov/p0000016.htm#2k5.

12 The Partnership for a Drug-Free America. (May, 2006). Retrieved from http://www.drugfree.org/Portal/DrugIssue/Research/.

13 North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. (2004). Findings and recommendations of the task force to prevent deaths from unintentional drug overdoses in North Carolina. Retrieved from http://www.communityhealth.dhhs.state.nc.us/Injury/FRTFPD_UDONC2003-Complete.pdf.

14 Paulozzi, L. & Annest, J. (2007). Unintentional poisoning deaths – United States, 1999–2004. Mortality and Morbidity Weekly Report, 56(05), 93-96.

15 Miller T.R. & Lestina, D.C. (1997). Costs of poisoning in the United States and savings from poison control centers: A benefit-cost analysis. Annuals of Emergency Medicine, 29(2), 239-45.

16 Gentilello, L.M. Rivara, F.P., Donovan, D.M., Jurkovich, G.J., Daranciang, E., Dunn, C.W. & et al. (1999). Alcohol interventions in a trauma center as a means of reducing the risk of injury recurrence. Annals of Surgery, 230(4), 473-483.

17 Estee, S., He, L. & Lee, N. (January 2006). Substance Use Outcomes: Six-Month Follow-up Survey of WASBIRT Clients: April 2004-January 2005. Department of Social and Health Services, Research and Data Analysis Division. Olympia, WA. Available at http://www1.dshs.wa.gov/word/hrsa/dasa/ResearchFactSheets/WASBIRTsubUseOutc.doc.

18 Simeone, R. & Holland, L. (Simeone Associates Inc.). (2006). An Evaluation of Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs. Retrieved January 29, 2007 from http://www.natlalliance.org/pdfs/PDMP%20Study%20Details.pdf.

19 GAO Report. GAO-02-634 Prescription drugs. State monitoring programs provide useful tool to reduce diversion. May 2002.

20 Faggiano, F., Vigna-Taglianti, F. D., Versino, E., Zambon, A., Borraccino, A., & Lemma, P. (2005). School-based prevention for illicit drugs’ use. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Issue 2.

21 Turner, S., Longshore, D., Wenzel, S., Deschenes, E., Greenwood, P., Fain, T., et al (2002). A decade of drug treatment court research. Substance Use and Misuse, 37, 1489-1527.

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