Overdoses What Is a Drug Overdose & What Causes It?

If you’re alone, call 911 and tell the operator quickly what happened and provide an address if you can. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are many nonfatal overdoses for every fatal overdose reported. Drug overdoses claimed the lives of 500,000 people from 2000 to 2014.

Use of any prescription medications, over-the-counter medications, and dietary supplements (including medicinal herbs) during pregnancy requires a doctor’s supervision. Older adults are also more sensitive to the effects of many medications. For example, older adults are more likely to experience light-headedness, loss of appetite, depression, confusion, and impaired coordination, putting them at risk of falling and fractures. The use of alcohol also increases the risk of an adverse drug reaction.

Some politicians cite rises in drug seizures as a sign of improved interdiction. Others say those same numbers are evidence that more drugs are getting into the country. But drug experts say it’s hard to tell who’s right given insufficient data. CDC data shows that about 11% of people age 12 and older use illegal drugs. At an April 30 Cabinet meeting, Bondi made a similar statement with larger numbers, crediting Trump with saving 75% of the U.S. population from fentanyl overdoses. People with certain mental illnesses need the help of family and friends to assist with medication therapy and to lend social support.

Even after administering this medication, it is crucial to take anyone experiencing an opioid overdose to the emergency room. The rate of deaths from drug overdose has increased steadily over the past couple of decades. It’s generally unclear how much pure fentanyl is in the pills or pounds of powdered fentanyl that are seized, Marino said. Therefore, that the DEA seized 119 million lethal doses does not mean the Trump administration saved 119 million people. Bondi failed to account for the limitations in fentanyl seizure data, the caveats about fentanyl’s lethality and the fact that not everyone has the same chance of dying of a fentanyl overdose. It’s unclear how Bondi reached those figures about fentanyl seized or lives saved.

Many substances can cause a state of sedation when abused due to how they interact with the central nervous system (CNS). Many systems are regulated by the CNS, which helps explain why overdoses of other substances, such as alcohol and opiates, can result in critical body systems failing. Anyone experiencing symptoms of an overdose should seek emergency medical care immediately. Addressing a substance use disorder can help decrease the chance of a drug overdose.

• According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are many nonfatal overdoses for every fatal overdose reported.
• Patients require a full treatment plan to prevent relapse and lead them to a substance-free life.
• 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.
• Fentanyl, for example, can lead to a dangerous overdose much faster than even heroin.
• An adult (especially elderly persons or people taking many medications) can mistakenly ingest the incorrect medication or take the wrong dose of a medication.

Risk factors for drug overdose are those that would make someone more likely to abuse drugs, or more likely to accidentally take the incorrect medication or take the wrong dose of a medication. To the extent possible, pregnant people should not take any medications, especially during the first trimester (see table Some Medications and Risk of Problems During Pregnancy). However, for some medications, including ACE inhibitors and ARBs, risk increases during the second and third trimesters of pregnancy. Older adults are at high risk of having an adverse drug reaction for several reasons (see Aging and Medications). They are likely to have many health problems and thus to be taking several prescription and over-the-counter medications.

• Alcohol overdose is generally referred to as alcohol poisoning in the medical community.
• Cocaine intoxication is dangerous because it affects every organ system.
• The side effects of alcohol consumption grow proportionally to the blood alcohol content.
• Also commonly known as an OD, an overdose occurs when someone ingests a larger dose of a drug than the body can handle.

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The CDC reported 50,000 fentanyl overdose deaths from December 2023 to November 2024, the latest available data. That’s a drop from more than 75,000 in the previous similar period. For other substances and uses, titrating doses (i.e., slowly increasing the quantity or potency of a substance used) can help achieve the desired effect while decreasing the likelihood of overdose.

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. If you suspect someone may be overdosing, do not leave them alone.

What to do if someone overdoses

Two examples are carbon monoxide poisoning and mushroom poisoning. A person with diabetes may develop weakness, sweating, nausea, and palpitations if insulin or another antidiabetic medication reduces the blood sugar level too much. Many states have a “Good Samaritan Law” that legally protects the person who suffers from the overdose, as well drug overdose meaning as the person who calls 911 to report the emergency. If you suspect an overdose, the most important thing to do is to call 911 immediately and get the person immediate medical help. Medical personnel may pump the person’s stomach to eradicate the substance and administer activated charcoal or medicines to counteract it. They will also monitor the patient’s vital signs and work to improve them, if necessary.

Signs and Symptoms

Surviving an overdose is possible with the right intervention, but seeking help for an addiction problem can prevent overdose in the first place. Reach out for help for yourself or a loved one by contacting FHE Health now. If you suspect you may have taken enough drugs to overdose, call for help immediately. If someone you trust is with you and they’re sober, ask them to call 911.

Policy Can Empower People to Prevent Overdose

They may use activated charcoal to absorb the drug from the patient’s GI tract or laxatives to help expel the drugs from the system. The individuals’ height and weight determine how the substance affects them. Find rehab for yourself or a loved one by speaking with a treatment provider. The Trump administration has redefined press access, filling its pool with influencers, partisans and a few legacy names. However, using Bondi’s logic, DHS could have also said that Biden saved 14 billion lives, double the world’s population. Drug policy experts say Bondi’s statements are an exaggeration premised on a distorted understanding of seizure data.

If you live with someone who you suspect may be at risk for an opioid drug overdose, you can keep Narcan in your home so you will be ready to administer it if needed. If the overdose is caused by a stimulant, Narcan won’t do anything. However, it won’t hurt – so if you are in doubt it’s worth using it just in case. In the case of a suicidal intentional drug overdose, you can get help from a crisis or suicide prevention hotline. You can call the hotline after calling the ambulance and they can offer support and guidance. The best way to prevent drug overdose is to reduce exposure to drugs, prevent misuse and treat drug use disorder.

Provide as many details as you can and follow the operator’s instructions while waiting for EMTs to arrive. Opioids make an overdose more likely because of how they function. They activate receptors in the brain and other areas of the body, which causes body functions to slow. As more opioids enter the system, more receptors are activated and become blocked.

“We don’t have any method I’m aware of for translating drug seizure data into any measure of overdose deaths averted,” Alene Kennedy-Hendricks, a Johns Hopkins University health policy expert, said. Fentanyl is a potent synthetic opioid that causes the majority of opioid overdoses in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Different substances cause different symptoms during an overdose. Although not universal, vomiting, seizures or convulsions, irregular heartbeat, and loss of consciousness or alertness are common across overdoses of several different substances.

Signs and symptoms

Brightly colored tablets and capsules, most of which are adult-dose formulations, can attract the attention of young children. Also, as people age, the liver is less able to metabolize many drugs, and the kidneys are less able to eliminate drugs from the body, increasing the risk of kidney damage and other adverse drug reactions. These age-related problems are often made worse by undernourishment and dehydration, which tend to become more common as people age. How mind-body interactions, such as mental attitude, outlook, belief in self, and confidence in health care professionals, influence adverse drug reactions remains largely unexplored. Certain preexisting diseases can alter drug absorption, metabolism, and elimination and the body’s response to drugs (see Drug-Disease Interactions), increasing the risk of adverse drug reactions.

If you have any questions about drug overdose or how to help a loved one who is struggling with drug addiction, please contact us at any time. If someone is unresponsive and you know they have taken drugs, don’t assume they are simply asleep. Always call an ambulance if you suspect they might have overdosed – you may save their life.