drug overdose meaning

If you use prescription drugs, be sure to use them only as directed by your doctor. Do not combine any medications without first asking your doctor if it’s safe. You should also not mix alcohol with prescription drugs without checking with your doctor first. An overdose can lead to serious medical complications, including death. The severity of a drug overdose depends on the drug, the amount taken, and the physical and medical history of the person who overdosed. Addressing a substance use disorder can help decrease the chance of a drug overdose.

  • This medication is available in a nasal spray and as an intravenous injection at the hospital.
  • You should seek medical help immediately if you have these symptoms or witness them in someone else and suspect they may have overdosed.
  • While a ketamine overdose itself will likely be non-fatal, ketamine users are at risk of pulmonary aspiration – when stomach contents are breathed into the airways – and therefore death by suffocation.
  • They may also experience kidney failure, bleeding disorders, and encephalopathy (swelling of the brain).
  • Do not share a prescription or take medications prescribed to another individual.
  • Nervous system symptoms include confusion, hallucinations, tiredness, and ringing in the ears.

Cocaine

Short-acting barbiturates expel out of the body within 24 to 48 hours as opposed to long-acting barbiturates such as phenobarbital, which require emergency services. Substance use disorders involving prescription opioids affect more than 2 million Americans. An opioid overdose involves the overconsumption of opioid-based drugs such as morphine, oxycodone and other synthetic narcotics. The most commonly abused classes of prescription drugs are opioids, stimulants and depressants. Do not leave it up to the person to tell you they are overdosing; they may not know or not be able to communicate it to you. When it comes to drug overdose, being proactive is essential to reversing overdose and preventing death.

What to do if someone overdoses

drug overdose meaning

Preliminary reports indicate that more than 109,000 drug overdose deaths occurred in the United States in 2022; nearly 70% of these involved synthetic opioids other than methadone, primarily illegally manufactured fentanyl and fentanyl analogs (IMFs). Data from the western United States suggested a transition from injecting heroin to smoking IMFs. From January–June 2020 to July–December 2022, the percentage of overdose deaths with evidence of injection decreased 29.1%, from 22.7% to 16.1%, whereas the percentage with evidence of smoking increased 73.7%, from 13.3% to 23.1%. The number of deaths with evidence of smoking increased 109.1%, from 2,794 to 5,843, and by 2022, smoking was the most commonly documented route of use in overdose deaths.

Risk factors for overdose

Observed decreases might reflect transitions to noninjection routes and response to public health efforts to reduce injection drug use because of its risk for overdose and infectious disease transmission (3,4,10). Despite these declines, more than 4,000 drug overdose deaths had evidence of injection during July–December 2022. Lessons learned from implementing syringe services programs could be applied to other harm reduction and outreach models to reach more persons who use drugs by any route.

An overdose is different for every substance – party or prescription – but what each does to the body is often left out of media reports and high school drug education. The poison control center may recommend trying to get the patient to vomit. A liquid called ipecac syrup, which is used to induce vomiting, is available from pharmacies without a prescription. Pediatricians may recommend that families keep ipecac syrup on hand in households with children. This medication should be used only on the advice of a medical professional.

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. Stabilization of the person’s airway, breathing, and circulation (ABCs) is the initial treatment of an overdose. Ventilation is considered when there is a low respiratory rate or when blood gases show the person to be hypoxic.

CDC’s prevention work to address the drug overdose epidemic

drug overdose meaning

I have been concerned about the growing presence of these drugs on UK streets and I don’t think enough has been done in recent years to get a grip on it. Stepping up efforts to tackle this threat will form a key part of this government’s approach to drugs, which we hope to set out later this year. Significant efforts are being made to combat the threat of devastating synthetic drugs, which the UK government warns is increasing. The question now is whether the new Trump administration will maintain funding for such programs. Additionally, it’s uncertain which approach the new administration will take to address the illicit drug crisis. The Australian Drug and Alcohol foundation describes an overdose as a “severe adverse reaction” caused by a a toxic amount (or combination) of a drug.

Accidental Overdose

The person’s body is unable to metabolize the substance fast enough, causing intoxication. drug overdose meaning People can overdose on alcohol, illegal drugs, prescription medications and over-the-counter medicine. Narcotics or opiates are drugs like heroin, morphine, and codeine. Overdose with opiate drugs causes sedation (sleepiness), low blood pressure, slowed heart rate, and slowed breathing. Pinpoint pupils, where the black centers of the eyes become smaller than normal, are common in opiate overdose. However, if other drugs are taken at the same time as the opiates, they may counteract this effect on the pupils.

However, the drug did not prove more effective than a combination of Tylenol and a commonly prescribed opioid. Latest figures show since June 2023, there have been at least 400 drug-related deaths across the UK linked to nitazenes, a type of synthetic opioid, and this figure is expected to increase in the coming years. However, the risk of death from ketamine alone is low, because the type of unconsciousness it renders has a minimal impact on airway reflexes or blood circulation, making it a preferable sedative choice for doctors. This means you can likely still breathe and function normally in a k-hole from a high dose of ketamine.

Britain working at pace to curb rising synthetic drugs threat

  • Once the ambulance is dispatched, the operator will stay on the line with you to monitor the person’s symptoms and situation, which they will feed through to the paramedics, so don’t hang up until instructed to.
  • This makes it difficult for the body to remove alcohol from the bloodstream and can harm other body parts.
  • A drug overdose is taking too much of a substance, whether it’s prescription, over-the-counter, legal, or illegal.
  • Xylazine, often known as ‘tranq’, is a high-strength veterinary sedative, which has increasingly been used in combination with opioids such as heroin.
  • Anyone experiencing a substance use disorder should seek treatment to address their symptoms.
  • Unfortunately, the number of deaths resulting from opioid overdoses continues to persist.

Safe disposal of used needles and syringes can help prevent the spread of infectious diseases, such as hepatitis C and HIV. Just before leaving office, President Biden issued executive actions intended to continue expanding access to addiction treatment. A Commonwealth Fund study on drug overdoses in the United States reported last month that more than 100,000 lives were lost in 2023—a more than 50% jump since 2019.

Good Samaritan laws and similar legal protections exist across states to ensure you will not get into trouble for helping someone experiencing an overdose. If you are experiencing suicidal thoughts, contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 for support and assistance from a trained counselor. If you have depression or suicidal thoughts, contact your doctor right away.

Acetaminophen is the generic name for the commonly used pain reliever Tylenol. Overdose of this drug causes liver damage with symptoms that include loss of appetite, tiredness, nausea and vomiting, paleness, and sweating. The next stage of symptoms indicates liver failure and includes abdominal pain and tenderness, swelling of the liver, and abnormal blood tests for liver enzymes. In the last stage of this poisoning, liver failure advances and the patient becomes jaundiced, with yellowing of the skin and whites of the eyes. They may also experience kidney failure, bleeding disorders, and encephalopathy (swelling of the brain).