OBJECTIVE To provide current information on general and specific interventions for overdoses likely to require intensive care. DESIGN Review of literature relevant to selected interventions for general management of overdoses and specific poisons. RESULTS The benefit of interventions to decrease absorption or enhance elimination of toxins is limited to a relatively small number of specific ...

BACKGROUND In order to reduce fatal self-poisoning legislation was introduced in the UK in 1998 to restrict pack sizes of paracetamol sold in pharmacies (maximum 32 tablets) and non-pharmacy outlets (maximum 16 tablets), and in Ireland in 2001, but with smaller maximum pack sizes (24 and 12 tablets). Our aim was to determine whether this resulted in smaller overdoses of paracetamol in Ireland c...

Introduction: Effective out-of-hospital administration of naloxone in opioid overdoses is dependent on timely arrival naloxone. Delays emergency medical services (EMS) response time could potentially be overcome with drones to deliver efficiently the scene for bystander use. Our objective was evaluate a mathematical optimization simulation geographical placement drone bases reducing overdose.Met...

At a 644-bed, tertiary-care, “magnet” system, intravenous (IV) infusion medication errors were determined to present the greatest risk of harm. An IV infusion safety initiative focused on multidisciplinary collaboration, standardization of IV dosing, and medication safety technology. A modular IV infusion safety system was determined to provide the greatest “speed to impact” in reducing harm. I...

Introduction Overdoses of heroin and prescription opioids are a growing cause of mortality in the United States. Deaths from opioids have contributed to a rise in the overall mortality rate of middle-aged white males during an era when other demographics are experiencing life expectancy gains.1 A successful public health intervention to reverse this mortality trend requires a detailed understan...

BACKGROUND Overdoses from so-called "club drugs" (GHB/GBL) have become a more frequent cause of overdoses attended by ambulance services. Given its availability, affordability, and lack of awareness of risks, there is a common misconception among users that the drug is relatively safe. METHODS This study reviewed ambulance records in Bergen, Norway between 2009 and 2015 for cases of acute poi...

The objective of this study was a) to compare patterns of drug use in fatal and nonfatal overdoses and b) to find out if toxic drugs are overrepresented in overdoses with fatal outcome. A total of 179 cases of fatal overdoses in Switzerland (population 6.6 million) were compared with 269 medically treated self-poisoners from the agglomeration of Berne (population 301,630). Because of frequent m...