Copyright © 2012 Massachusetts Medical Society. Opioid analgesic overdose is a preventable and potentially lethal condition that results from prescribing practices, inadequate understanding on the patient’s part of the risks of medication misuse, errors in drug administration, and pharmaceutical abuse.1,2 Three features are key to an understanding of opioid analgesic toxicity. First, opioid ana...

Phospholipids are an important class of lipids that act as building blocks of biological cell membranes and participate in a variety of vital cellular functions including cell signaling. Previous studies have reported alterations in phosphatidylcholine (PC) and lysophosphatidylcholine (lysoPC) metabolism in acetaminophen (APAP)-treated animals or cell cultures. However, little is known about ph...

OBJECTIVE To identify patterns of mental health, prescription drug use and personal circumstances associated with heroin overdose in young people. DESIGN Linkage of data on use of Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) prescription drugs with data from a self-report questionnaire. SETTING Inner metropolitan Melbourne, Australia. SUBJECTS 163 young people, 15-30 years, using heroin. MAIN O...

A 13-year-old boy with imipramine overdose developed seizures, respiratory arrest, and coma. Abnormalities of oculovestibular reflexes, electroencephalograms, and brainstem auditory evoked potentials were monitored in relation to measurements of drug levels. An alpha-coma electroencephalographic pattern evolved into one evidencing spindle coma and eventually into a normal pattern. Prolonged bra...

n engl j med 367;14 nejm.org october 4, 2012 1373 1. Enteen L, Bauer J, McLean R, et al. Overdose prevention and naloxone prescription for opioid users in San Francisco. J Urban Health 2010;87:931-41. 2. Doe-Simkins M, Walley A, Epstein A, Moyer P. Saved by the nose: bystander-administered intranasal naloxone hydrochloride for opioid overdose. Am J Public Health 2009;99:788-91. 3. Role of nalox...

This article reports myocarditis related to overdose of quetiapine. An 18-year-old female patient who used 25 mg quetiapine for anxiety disorder attempted suicide with twenty pills. The developed palpitations, shortness breath, pleuritic chest pain, and confusion in the emergency room. ST-elevation right bundle branch block were detected on D1-aVL lead patient's ECG. cardiac markers significant...

OBJECTIVES Opioid overdose is still the first cause of preventable death among young men in Barcelona. Sound knowledge of opioid overdose prevention is important to avoid complications and deaths. This study aimed to identify the factors associated with limited knowledge of overdose prevention and to assess the possible effect of treatment and overdose prevention training programs on this varia...

BACKGROUND Long-term opioid therapy for chronic noncancer pain is becoming increasingly common in community practice. Concomitant with this change in practice, rates of fatal opioid overdose have increased. The extent to which overdose risks are elevated among patients receiving medically prescribed long-term opioid therapy is unknown. OBJECTIVE To estimate rates of opioid overdose and their ...