Individuals admitted for overdose medication causing effects in emergency rooms tend to have longer period of recovery. We know from hospital and police reports that abusing drugs can lead to a variety of dangerous circumstances although in most cases the individuals have found themselves bearing this consequences due to overdose medication. For example, being inebriated may endanger one’s own or others’ lives. Running a car when inebriated is an excellent example of this. An accidental overdose majorly caused by overdose medication is another common occurrence among drug users.
What is an Overdose Medication?
Overdose medication is too much prescription or acquiring more over-the-counter substances than it is accepted for use. When the body is exposed to too much of a drugs or a combination of substances, it leads to overdose medication. Heavy dose can be deliberate or unintentional. Illicit narcotics, intoxicant, order drugs, a number of other substances may cause overdose medication. In certain cases, overdoses are deadly, but most people who have overdosed will be saved if emergency care is provided quickly enough. Drug overdose are always deadly, but most patients who have overdosed will be rescued if emergency attention is provided soon enough. In terms of medications, there are a few different ways that chemicals will overwhelm the body. However, in any chemical poisoning, pulmonary failure is also the biggest cause of mortality. During overdose medication, whether prescription, over-the-counter, legal, or illegal, an overdose happens.
Types of Overdose Medication
Sedative Overdose
Narcotics, barbiturates, and liquor are all sedative that damage the central nervous system due to overdose medication. CNS downers reduce basal metabolism and heart rate while still slowing the heart rhythm and breathing. This is why these medications have sedative properties, which allow fear to decrease and a relaxed and exhilaration effect to increase. When sedative are used in too high doses, they can cause serious negative effects such as pulmonary arrest, poisoning, coma, and even death.
Opioid Overdose
Being a perfect example of overdose medication, opioids take a shorter time to get ingested, this gives them an overhand and are more likely for to cause overdose medication. Opioid receptors can be located in the body, including the The urinary tract, the brain, and the nervous system. This receptors are stimulated when someone takes an opioid, which allows the body to slow down. As the body is overrun by opioids, both of these receptors have been disabled, and body is unable to act normally. This raises the chance of overdose medication, that is dangerous and can cause a person’s breathing to slow to the point of exhaustion. Different opioids have varying degrees of intensity. Whereas someone who only took heroin could take a moment to feel the symptoms of an heavily dose, someone who uses would feel it in seconds. The United States’ Head of state proclaimed a nationwide opioid crisis in 2017 because of these potent opioids.
Intoxicant Overdose
When a person drinks more intoxicant in a shorter amount of time it leads to overdose medication in turn, the intoxicant builds up throughout the bloodstream because of the body’s inability to metabolize it quickly enough, and it spreads across the body. An intoxicant toxicity, also known as liquor poisoning, could occur as a because of this.
Excitant Overdose
Excitant like methamphetamine and cocaine affect the central nervous system in the reverse direction that opioids do. They will raise your pulse rate, skin temperature, and respiration rate are also factors to consider. When the circulatory, respiratory, systems are over-stressed to an extent of fatigue, this is known as a excitant overdose or excitant overdose medication.
Emergency Department
An emergency department (ED), also known as an, emergency ward (EW), accident and emergency department (A&E) casualty department or accident and emergency room is a hospital service facility that specializes in prompt treatment or diagnosis of injury, trauma, overdose medication and vital charge of people who need medical care that arrive at the hospital without an appointment. Those who need drugs and facilities come into contact with emergency rooms as well.
Overdose medication and other drug-related injuries result in millions of hospital emergency department visits per year. In fact, one of the measures used to demonstrate how problematic substance abuse has become in the United States is the high level of drug-related emergency room visits.
Overdosing as a result of overdose medication can result in severe medical problems, including death. The seriousness of a drug overdose is determined by the drug, the amount taken, and the person’s physical and medical background. If a person’s liver cannot detoxify the medication rapidly enough to prevent unintended side effects, synthetic substances used to get high can be taken in high quantities leading to overdose medication.
Drugs have a wide range of effects on the human body. In certain cases, the symptoms of the medication in case of overdose medication are a heightened version of the therapeutic effects seen in daily use. Overdosing causes side effects to become more severe, as well as other effects that would not arise with regular use. Large overdoses of certain drugs have minor consequences, while smaller overdoses of other medications may have serious consequences, including death.
Vital signs problems (temperature, heart rate, respiratory rate, blood pressure) are possible and can be life-threatening. The values of vital signs may be higher, lower, or absent entirely. Sleepiness, confusion, and coma are normal and can be dangerous if aspiration occurs. Cool and sweaty skin, or hot and dry skin, are also possible. all these are as a result of overdose medication.
Damage to the heart or lungs may result in chest pain. It is possible that one experiences shortness of breath. Breathing can be quick, sluggish, deep, or shallow depending on the situation. It’s likely that one experiences abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea during overdose medication. Blood in the vomit or bowel movements may be fatal. Depending on the drug, individual organs can be harmed.
A hospital’s emergency department also called the emergency room is responsible for providing medical and surgical services to patients who arrive at the hospital in need of urgent attention such as overdose medication. People who inject drugs have a higher rate of morbidity and mortality as a result of their substance use. Overdosing on opioids, in particular, is a leading cause of death among drug users.
When a person comes to the emergency department with signs that indicate their blood sugar is dangerously high, the doctor diagnoses diabetes and promptly begins them on insulin. Isn’t that self-evident?
The traditional approach to treating people who have suffered an overdose medication due to over usage of drugs is for hospital emergency departments to treat them accordingly. In an opioid overdose, the patient is usually treated with naloxone, which counteracts the effects of opioids in the body.1 In an overdose medication caused by the stimulants, the patient is usually given sedatives to counteract the effects of the stimulant drugs. Yet, the individuals who receive these life-saving treatments are simply sent home without any action taken by hospitals to prevent them from relapsing into using illicit substances. While it’s imperative to treat the overdose in order to reduce the risk of relapse mainly happening during overdose medication, it seems that there may be an opportunity lost by not carrying out any health education and not providing patients with the rehabilitative resources available today.
New research adds to the mounting evidence that they should be. People who use opioids likened by overdose medication are more likely to undergo and remain in treatment if they are administered buprenorphine immediately in the emergency room, according to a report published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.
Suboxone is a form of opioid replacement therapy that is also known as buprenorphine. Although it’s a common belief that taking Suboxone is the same as using heroin because they’re both opioids and the two can lead to overdose medication while the distinction is that Suboxone relieves cravings nearly immediately, encouraging those who need it to reach treatment and regain their lives.
Many who have been receiving opioid replacement therapy are no longer viewed as those who have an opioid use problem if they are making progress in their marriage, securing better employment and helping to support their families without taking overdose medications.
The physical dependence on a drug is not the same as a substance use disorder, in which everyday lives are interrupted and unstable.
What Is the Reason for Someone Who Overdoses Being Sent Home without A Plan?
The Authors of The Report, Which Was Published in February, Wrote;
“The goal of emergency department (ED)-based procedures is to stabilize and heal medical conditions as quickly as possible, with the goal of enrolling patients in ongoing care.”
The results suggest that ED doctors will commence buprenorphine therapy for moderate/severe opioid use problems and overdose medication while referring patients to community-based providers who can administer buprenorphine, such as primary care and other office-based physicians. Exacerbations of other respiratory diseases, such as diabetes and asthma, are often used in the emergency department.”
There are various explanations for why people with drug overdose due to overdose medication caused by opioid use disorder visit the emergency room. Most people with substance use disorders do not seek treatment on their own for various reasons, including a lack of awareness that treatment exists or how to access it and a belief that they do not need or are not ready for it. Individuals with substance use disorders, on the other hand, frequently seek medical help for a variety of reasons, including acute health issues such as illness, injury, or overdose medication, as well as chronic illnesses like HIV/AIDS, heart disease, or depression. When they are taken in for an overdose, they will be administered with Narcan (naloxone), a life-saving injectable medication that reverses the effects of overdose medication. They “wake up” and begin breathing again almost immediately. When they are taken in for an overdose, they will be administered with Narcan (naloxone), a life-saving injectable medication that reverses the effects of drug overdose. They “wake up” and begin breathing again almost immediately.
Many people are actually sent home at this stage, which is a shocking fact. Their loved ones may be unaware that overdose medication has happened due to HIPAA legislation. An addict can also go to the emergency department in search of pain relievers. An astute doctor will be able to spot this and offer medication-assisted therapy as well as a referral to advanced drug treatment as soon as possible due to the severity of overdose medication. Emergency rooms, unfortunately, are a squandered opportunity for care.
Nearly 300 patients were randomly assigned to three classes in the Yale study: Buprenorphine started in the emergency department with overdose medication being their area of specialization also ten weeks of primary care continuity, prescription, or brief intervention.
At two months, 74% of those given buprenorphine continued in care, compared to just 53% of those who received an alcohol specialist referral and 47% of those who received prevention treatment.
“According to the authors, “at two months, the buprenorphine community reported marginally less illegal opioid usage mainly by low overdose medication instances, with 1.1 days of illicit opioid use in the preceding seven days, compared to 1.8 in the referral group and two in the short intervention group.” “There was a significant temporal change toward decreased criminal drug use in all populations from baseline to 12 months, but there were no longer any between-group differences.”.
It is worth remembering that if anyone who is abusing heroin in case of overdose medication or other reasons ends up in the ER, they will get buprenorphine and be sent to specialized drug therapy right away.
While many clinics focus solely on detoxing a drug, alcohol addict or overdose medication, it’s important to get to the bottom of why someone is using drugs in the first place. Many who self-medicate a co-occurring disorder such as anxiety, depression, or other medical disorders are normal. People who get treatment for all of these disorders at the same time have a significantly higher risk of long-term sobriety and mental health. overdose medication may be the problem of an individual or the doctor but both parties need to take responsibility in case it happens.
Be Honest and Ask for Help if You’re in The ER
In the Yale study, over 300 patients were randomized into three groups; those who initiated buprenorphine in a major urban teaching hospital and continued in primary care ten weeks later, those referred to primary care, and those getting brief interventions.
On the contrary, only 53 percentages of those referred to addiction specialists and 47 percentages of those offered a medication intervention remained in treatment at two months after administering overdose medications. The authors concluded that the buprenorphine group reported significantly less opioid use in the past seven days; their rates were significantly lower among people taking the bus than in people getting short-term rehab. “All groups experienced significant decreases in their usage of illicit opioids from baseline to 12 months, but there was no significant difference between groups in terms of overdose medication.
Suppose someone abused opioids and ended up in an ER. In that case, it is noteworthy that the patient might request urgent buprenorphine therapy and be directed to a specialist addiction treatment after being given overdose medications by such a doctor. Detoxing is only part of it; the true problem lies in determining why someone is addicted to drugs in the first place. The majority of individuals who self-medicate are experiencing anxiety, depression, or other psychological disorders and self-medicate as a control to alleviate those conditions. It is much more likely that one will remain sober and have good mental health if both problems are simultaneously treated with overdose medications.
It rarely passes the point when overdose medication is treated. First respondents normally administer naloxone to the overdose survivor. The person is rushed to a medical institution urgent care facility after being resuscitated to be examined by a doctor before being discharged. This is not to state that heavily dosed individuals shouldn’t be treated like any other medical emergency. Treating heavy doses while avoiding patients’ dependence is analogous to treating a symptom while ignoring the underlying cause. In case of overdose medication call us on 615-490-9376
Sources
D’Onofrio, G. et al. (2017, Feb. 13). Emergency Department-Initiated Buprenorphine for Opioid Dependence with Continuation in Primary Care: Outcomes During and After Intervention. Journal of General Internal Medicine.
Ben Lesser is one of the most sought-after experts in health, fitness and medicine. His articles impress with unique research work as well as field-tested skills. He is a freelance medical writer specializing in creating content to improve public awareness of health topics. We are honored to have Ben writing exclusively for Dualdiagnosis.org.