Author: James Anderson

Drug Overdose: Definition, Treatment, Prevention, and More

If you have depression or suicidal thoughts, contact your doctor right away. Your doctor can help you get the psychiatric care you need. If you are experiencing suicidal thoughts, contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 for support and assistance from a trained counselor.

What are the risk factors for drug overdose?

A few days later, the little bit of blood became a lot of blood, which accompanied each bowel movement. Drugs may contain deadly levels of fentanyl, and you wouldn’t be able to see it, taste it, or smell it. It is nearly impossible to tell if drugs have been mixed with fentanyl unless you test your drugs with fentanyl test strips.

What does drug overdose mean?

When taking a prescription medication, always follow a doctor’s instructions and take the medication exactly as they prescribed it. When in doubt about the correct dosage, consult with a doctor or pharmacist. The following are some questions people frequently ask about drug overdose. There are a range of treatments available for different kinds of drug overdose. Anyone receiving an opioid prescription should speak with their doctor to learn more about the risk of overdose. Acetaminophen-hydrocodone and Acetaminophen-oxycodone are frequently the cause of ER visits with complaints of severe constipation, nausea, dizziness, somnolence and breathing problems that could lead to death.

What are the signs of drug overdose?

Using unregulated opioids increases someone’s chances of overdose and death from overdose. This is particularly relevant for people with opioid use disorders and leaving prison, as they have very high rates of opioid overdose during the first four weeks after release. If you misuse drugs, quitting is the best way for you to prevent a drug overdose.

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Because of this, first responders and people who are trained to administer naloxone (Narcan®) mainly rely on symptoms and personal history to diagnose them. As the person experiencing an overdose is usually unconscious, providers rely on bystanders or loved ones to tell them if the person has a history of substance use. They may also find items or substances related to the overdose near the person.

The most obvious way to tell if these symptoms indicate overdose is if you know you have taken drugs or have seen someone else take drugs. Getting medical help quickly can make a big difference in the effectiveness of drug overdose treatment. A drug overdose is taking too much of a substance, whether it’s prescription, over-the-counter, legal, or illegal. If you’ve taken more than the recommended amount of a drug or enough to have a harmful effect on your body’s functions, you have overdosed.

What are the signs and symptoms of an opioid overdose?

Know that certain ways of taking drugs can be riskier than others. Inhaling or injecting drugs may cause them to get to your brain more quickly and also increases your chance of using an amount that can severely harm you. To prevent drug overdose from prescription medications, only take the prescribed dose. Follow a doctor or pharmacist’s directions for taking any prescription. Do not take additional doses to make up for any missed doses. Anyone noticing these or other symptoms should contact emergency services or seek immediate medical treatment.

An opioid overdose happens when opioid use causes respiratory depression, which can lead to respiratory failure and death. Fentanyl is an opioid that’s 50 to 100 times stronger than morphine. People who make heroin often add nonmedical fentanyl to it to increase its potency (strength).

1. The rate of deaths from drug overdose has increased steadily over the past couple of decades.
2. This is particularly relevant for people with opioid use disorders and leaving prison, as they have very high rates of opioid overdose during the first four weeks after release.
3. The drug naloxone (Narcan) can also help treat an opioid overdose by blocking opioids’ effects in the body.
4. Naloxone can reverse the effects of an overdose if it’s given to the person quickly.

Nonprescription opioids account for about 75% of opioid overdose deaths. Drug overdose is the leading cause of accidental death in the United States, with opioids being the most common cause. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that more than 1,000 emergency department visits daily are related to opioid use and that there are about 91 opioid overdose deaths every day in the U.S. An opioid overdose happens when opioids excessively stimulate the part of your brain that regulates breathing.

These medications carry a high risk of addiction and overdose, especially if taken outside a doctor’s directions. This can include taking any amount of someone else’s medication or more than the doctor prescribed. Their regular non-medical use, prolonged use, misuse and use without medical supervision can lead to opioid dependence and other health problems. Opioid dependence is a disorder of regulation of opioid use arising from repeated or continuous use of opioids. Narcan, an anti-overdoes medication that is widely available, can usually reverse these effects. Sometimes overdose patients have to be given multiple treatments of Narcan, depending on the amount of opioids in their system.

Opioid use disorder is a medical condition — it requires care just like any other condition. It can be difficult for people who use opioids or other substances to know what to expect when using nonmedical forms of opioids. This is because when they’re not regulated medically, they often have varying levels of potency. They may also be combined with other substances like heroin, high-grade fentanyl, carfentanil (an extremely strong opioid used by veterinarians to treat large animals like elephants) or other unknown substances.