Drug poisoning: what to do, how to quickly help an addict

Drug poisoning, otherwise known as “overdose,” poses a serious threat to life, provokes deep depression of consciousness, very quickly leading to the development of a coma and death. Drug overdose can occur in the following cases:

• using a cocktail of several psychotropics to achieve a more pronounced “high,” especially when adding alcohol;
• taking low-quality “street” drugs, the exact composition and dosage of psychotropic substances included in the “hellish mixture” are never known.

The main danger of drug poisoning is depression of the central nervous system, which in most cases, in the absence of professional help, ends in death.

Content:

1. About the drug
2. How does an amphetamine overdose manifest?
3. What does an amphetamine overdose lead to?
4. What to do in case of overdose before the doctor arrives
5. Drug treatment for amphetamine overdose
6. When the overdose is over

With an overdose of amphetamine, body temperature rises and panic occurs. The patient becomes overly active and agitated. He may exhibit abnormal psychiatric symptoms. Visual and auditory hallucinations, delirium, weakness - all these are also complications that develop as a result of taking high doses of a stimulant.

About the drug

Amphetamine is a drug that strongly stimulates the central and peripheral nervous system.

In the drug environment, it is distributed in the form of yellow, gray or pinkish powder, solution, capsules, and tablets. It may have a strong chemical smell or no smell at all.

Drug addicts use the composition orally, by inhaling through the nose. Some people make “roll-your-own cigarettes” from it and inject it into a vein. As a result, they experience strong euphoria, mental excitement, and experience motor and speech activity.

How does an amphetamine overdose manifest?

suspect that a person has taken a high dose of a drug based on the following signs:

• headache;
• intolerance to bright light and loud sounds;
• disorientation in space;
• motor restlessness;
• feeling of “goosebumps” running through the body;
• impaired coordination of movements;
• cardiopalmus;
• dilated pupils;
• labored breathing;
• a sore throat;
• compression of the sternum;
• increased sweating;
• diarrhea;
• thirst, drying of the mucous membranes of the oral cavity;
• rashes all over the body.

You can die from amphetamine, so narcologists regard an overdose as a life-threatening condition. Cases of death have been reported as a result of taking 20 mg of the drug per kilogram of body weight. So, if a drug addict weighs 60 kg, then he risks dying if he uses 1200 mg of amphetamine or more at a time.

Features of drug poisoning

“Overdose” is individual for each drug addict and is directly dependent on a number of factors:

1. The method of entry into the body of a narcotic drug. Intravenous administration can cause the most severe intoxication, since the drug entering the bloodstream instantly spreads throughout the body.
2. A history of chronic diseases. Drug addicts who have any regularly recurring diseases experience a complicated form of drug poisoning with more severe symptoms.

Death from a drug overdose can be caused by unexpected cessation of breathing, swelling of the brain or lungs. Unfortunately, drug addicts do not always realize the seriousness of the pathological condition that has arisen, because... it is often confused with euphoria. This is very dangerous, because if you do not provide assistance to the victim at an early toxicogenic stage, irreversible changes will begin to develop in his body.

What does an amphetamine overdose lead to?

According to scientific research, the drug makes the stable activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary axis impossible and promotes increased production of adrenocorticotropic hormone. It disrupts the activity of nerve cells and destroys serotonergic neurons.

This latter effect explains why drug addicts often experience painful cramps.

As a result of amphetamine use, the heart rate increases and the heart rhythm becomes disrupted. Blood pressure may rise sharply. If blood flow to the heart tissues is disrupted, myocardial infarction develops.

“Glitches”, “coughs”, “sneezes”... Who is to blame?

There are many reasons for the development of heart failure. Among them, the most important place is occupied by coronary heart disease or insufficient blood supply to the heart muscle. Ischemia, in turn, is caused by blockage of the heart vessels with fat-like substances. A heart attack can also cause heart failure because some of the heart tissue dies and becomes scarred. Arterial hypertension is another common cause of insufficiency. The heart requires much more effort to move blood through the spasmodic vessels, which results in an increase in its size, in particular the left ventricle. Later, weakness of the heart muscle or heart failure develops. Causes that influence the development of heart failure include cardiac arrhythmias (irregular contractions). A number of beats of more than 140 per minute is considered dangerous for the development of the disease, because At the same time, the processes of filling and ejection of blood by the heart are disrupted. Changes in the heart valves lead to disturbances in the filling of the heart with blood and can also cause the development of heart failure. The problem is usually caused by an internal infection (endocarditis) or a rheumatic disease. Risk factors for the development of diseases of the cardiovascular system, and, ultimately, heart failure, can also include excess weight, a sedentary lifestyle, alcohol and drug addiction, and hormonal disorders.

What to do in case of overdose before the doctor arrives?

If an addict has taken a high dose of a narcotic drug, he needs immediate first aid. First, you need to call a drug treatment ambulance, then begin rescue measures:

1. Open the windows in the room
   to provide fresh air. Unfasten the belt and collar.
2. If the heart stops, perform artificial respiration.
3. If the addict is conscious and has recently used amphetamine,
   artificially induce vomiting. To do this, the addict must gently press his fingers on the root of the tongue, after drinking a large amount of water.
4. In case of loss of consciousness, place the patient on his side and ensure
   that vomit does not block the airways.

No medications should be given to the victim without first consulting with a narcologist. This could worsen an already difficult situation.

Is it painful to die or not - feelings at the moment of death

Every person at a conscious age thinks about death. What awaits us after death? Does the other world exist? Are we purely biological beings, or does each of us still have a certain soul that, after death, goes to another world? One of the many questions that arises in the mind is the unknown of the sensations that a person experiences just before death. Does a person experience torment, pain, or, on the contrary, do all sensations become dull before leaving for another world? The issues discussed have worried people since their inception and still do. Scientists continue to study this mysterious phenomenon, but only a few questions can be answered. Feelings of Dying People The physical sensations of a dying person will depend primarily on what led him to death. He can experience both severe pain and pleasant sensations. As for psychological perception, at the moment of dying, most people instinctively feel fear, panic and horror, and try to “resist” death. According to biology, after the heart muscle stops contracting and the heart stops, the brain continues to function for about five minutes. It is believed that in these last minutes, a person’s mind reflects on his life, vivid memories emerge, and the person, as it were, “sums up” his existence. Classification of death Biologists divide death into two categories: Natural; Unnatural. Natural death occurs according to the laws of normal physiology and occurs due to the natural aging of the body or in the case of underdevelopment of the fetus in the womb. Unnatural death can occur for the following reasons: Due to various serious and fatal diseases (oncological, cardiovascular, etc.); Mechanical effects: suffocation, electric shock; Chemical exposure: overdose of drugs, medicinal substances or alcohol overdose; Unspecified - a seemingly healthy person dies suddenly from a latent disease or a sudden, acute form of the disease. From a legal point of view, death is divided into: Non-violent; Violent. Nonviolent death occurs in old age, long-term illness, and in other similar cases. Violent deaths include murder and suicide. Stages of Death To better understand what a person may experience during death, we can consider the stages of the process identified from a medical point of view: Preagonal stage. At this moment, a malfunction occurs in the blood circulation and breathing systems, causing hypoxia to develop in the tissues. This period lasts from several hours to several days; Terminal pause. At this moment, the person stops breathing, the functioning of the myocardium malfunctions; Agonal stage. The body is trying to return to life. At this stage, a person periodically stops breathing, the heart works increasingly weaker, which causes malfunctions in the functioning of all organ systems; Clinical death. Breathing and blood circulation stop. This stage lasts about five minutes, and it is at this moment that the person can be brought back to life with the help of resuscitation measures; Biological death - a person finally dies. Important! Only people who have experienced clinical death are the only ones who can accurately report what sensations are possible in a dying person. Morbidity in various deaths Cause Time of dying Pain Overdose of prescription drugs 129 minutes 8.5 Fall from height 5 minutes 17.78 Drowning 18 minutes 79 Shot in the head with a pistol 3 minutes 13 Fire 1 hour 91 Is it painful to die from cancer Cancer is one of the the most common causes of death. Unfortunately, a cure for malignant carcinoma has not yet been discovered, and cancer at stages 3 and 4 is an incurable disease. All that doctors can do in this situation is to reduce the patient’s pain with the help of special analgesics and slightly prolong the person’s life. A person with a cancer tumor does not always experience pain when dying. In some situations, before the death of a cancer patient, he begins to sleep a lot and ultimately plunges into a comatose state, after which he dies without feeling any physical illness, that is, directly in his sleep. In another situation, the stages of dying of a cancer patient are as follows: Before death, the patient may experience migraines, see hallucinations and lose memory, which is why he does not recognize his loved ones; Speech disturbances occur, it is more difficult for the patient to say connected sentences, he may utter awkward phrases; The person may experience blindness and/or deafness; As a result, the motor functions of the body are impaired. However, this is only a general average picture of how a person with cancer feels before death. If we look directly at specific types of cancer tumors, then the localization of carcinoma in the liver makes a person die in agony due to multiple bleedings. Death from lung cancer also causes significant pain due to the fact that the patient begins to choke, vomit blood, after which an epileptic attack occurs and the patient dies. In the case of intestinal cancer, the patient also feels excruciating pain in the abdomen, in addition to this, he is tormented by a headache. Laryngeal cancer patients also feel pain before they die. With this localization, the person also experiences severe pain in the corresponding area. Important! Do not forget that the described symptoms are eliminated by doctors with the help of special analgesics, and before death - narcotic drugs, so in some cases it is possible to achieve an almost complete reduction in pain until it disappears. Thus, the question “is it painful to die from cancer” can most likely be answered in the negative, since modern medicine has all the means to help reduce the patient’s pain. Is it painful to die of old age? According to medical research, people in old age experience a feeling of relief when they die. Only 1/10 of those surveyed feel fear before death. Just before death, old people feel discomfort, pain and complete apathy towards everything. When dying, people begin to see hallucinations and can “talk” to the dead. As for physical sensations, dying is painful only due to difficulty breathing. Most old people can die in their sleep, and this death is not associated with severe pain and physical suffering. Does it hurt to die from a pill overdose? The physical sensations of a person dying due to taking an excessive amount of a drug depend primarily on the type of medication and the individual characteristics of the body. In fact, death occurs due to the development of severe intoxication of the body, and before death a person may experience pain due to pain in the abdomen. In addition, he experiences dizziness, nausea and vomiting. An exceptional case would be a person who has taken an excessive dose of a potent sedative, since the consequences of such an act will be the onset of a deep coma and the shutdown of all instinctive defense mechanisms. In view of this, a person passes into another world directly in a dream and does not feel pain. Is it painful to die from a stroke? Because a stroke can occur in different areas of the brain, a person's experience of death may vary. If the motor center has been affected, weakness or paralysis may occur in a particular limb. The general picture of a person’s feelings about death is usually the following: He hears incomprehensible voices or sounds; Sleepy; Confused mind; Strong headache; General weakness. Some stroke patients may also die in their sleep or go into a deep coma. Is it painful to die from a heart attack? During a heart attack, sudden changes in pressure occur due to a failure in blood circulation, which is felt by a person as severe pain in the area behind the sternum. In addition, the blood supply to all organs is disrupted, which also causes pain - in particular, blood stagnates in the lungs and swelling of the latter occurs. The patient experiences difficulty breathing and general weakness of the body. In the first minutes, when blood stops flowing to the brain and hypoxia begins, the person will also experience a severe headache. However, as a rule, during such an attack, a person may lose consciousness almost immediately, since the organs are not supplied with blood in the normal manner. Without medical assistance, a person in this condition can live no more than 5 minutes without feeling pain. Does it hurt to die from a bullet? It all depends primarily on the place where the bullet hit and its caliber. If a bullet pierces the brain, then very often death occurs almost instantly, and the organ shuts down faster than the person has time to feel anything. In other situations, as a rule, first a person feels a sharp jolt, then a certain warmth in the body, and only then severe pain. After a few minutes, a painful shock occurs, when pain is no longer felt due to the body’s defense mechanisms being turned on, and the person loses consciousness. If medical care is not provided, he dies from blood loss, but there is no physical suffering. Does it hurt to die from a fall? Death from falling from a great height occurs almost instantly - within a few seconds or minutes. The sensations largely depend on the position in which the person landed and on the surface on which he fell. If you land on your head, death occurs instantly, and the only thing that can be experienced in this case is psychological panic during the flight. Death due to a fall occurs due to multiple fractures, rupture of internal organs and large blood loss. In the first seconds after the fall, a person experiences severe pain from the impact, then weakness occurs due to developing hypoxia and loss of consciousness. Is it painful to die from blood loss? The time of death in this case depends on the caliber of the damaged vessels. In particular, if the walls of the aorta are destroyed, the person dies almost instantly, without experiencing pain. Losing a lot of blood, a person does not feel pain. When bleeding, he first experiences dizziness, heaviness in the body and weakness. Gradually, strong thirst is added to these feelings. Eventually, due to insufficient blood supply, the person may lose consciousness and die. Is it painful to die from cold? In severe frost conditions, a person can die for quite a long time, but will not experience pain. Being in the cold for a long time, a person first experiences severe trembling and body aches. Gradually, he also begins to lose his memory and the ability to recognize the faces of loved ones. Then severe weakness sets in and, as a rule, people simply fall into the snow. The slow speed of blood flow in the brain provokes hallucinations. Severely narrowed capillaries on the skin can suddenly expand their lumen to create a surge of heat, which is why people often try to take off their clothes at this moment due to the feeling of “hotness”. After this, the person loses consciousness and dies as if “in his sleep.” Is it painful to die from AIDS? Since death in this case does not arise from AIDS itself, but from a disease that the body cannot cope with, the sensations before death may vary. Most often this is cytomegalovirus, liver cirrhosis, tuberculosis, developing against the background of AIDS. However, death can also occur from ordinary bronchitis. Physical sensations will depend entirely on the disease that the body cannot overcome. It is painful for a person to die only if he is sick with serious diseases of the internal organs. For example, if death occurs from tuberculosis, the patient will experience severe pain in the chest, breathing and heartbeat may be impaired, and bloody vomiting may occur. In cases where death occurs due to cirrhosis of the liver, the patient may experience excruciating pain in the abdomen and right hypochondrium. Conclusion Summarizing the above, we can say that it is more painful for people to die psychologically. Only in some cases does a person experience severe pain before death. Most often, people find it difficult to accept the fact of dying.

Drug treatment for amphetamine overdose

Upon arrival, the doctor will assess the severity of the patient’s condition. If no life-threatening complications are detected, he will administer infusion therapy and prescribe some medications. In the coming days after an overdose, a person should be under constant medical supervision.

When pulmonary edema occurs, the drug addict is given diuretics.

A Foley catheter is inserted to control urination. The fact is that with an amphetamine overdose, a decrease in the volume of urine excreted is often observed due to the negative effect of the drug on the bladder sphincter. It is important to control this moment.

Some patients experience seizures. Then they are given benzodiazepines and advised to remain completely at rest for some time. Any physical work is temporarily prohibited.

When cardiac activity fails, cardioprotectors, antihypertensives, and antiarrhythmics come to the rescue. It is very important to reduce high blood pressure quickly. Otherwise, a stroke or heart attack may develop.

Beta-blockers
are not used in case of amphetamine
due to the high likelihood of a sharp spasm of blood vessels. With pulmonary edema, diuretics and nitroglycerin come to the rescue. If your body temperature rises to 41°C, it needs to be normalized as soon as possible so that your internal organs do not fail.

Listen to your heart

Thus, heart failure is not an independent disease, but a stage of heart disease. Its severity and speed of development can vary and depend on the severity of the primary heart disease, the patient’s lifestyle, his age, concomitant diseases and, finally, on the quality of treatment. Heart failure is manifested by such symptoms as increased fatigue, swelling of the legs, shortness of breath, asthma attacks, causeless weight loss, etc. Any of these symptoms, especially taken individually, can occur in a variety of diseases. Therefore, the correct diagnosis is made, unfortunately, rarely and most often in the later stages of the disease. Thus, significant weight loss, which is typical for severe degrees of heart failure, is often mistaken for a sign of cancer. Or, for example, harmless swelling of the legs caused by stagnation of lymph gives rise to a diagnosis of “heart failure.” In my practice, there was a case when a patient with a severe form of heart failure was treated for several months for... constipation.

When is the overdose over?

Overcoming the symptoms of an overdose does not mean recovery. Drug addiction is a very insidious disease. It is difficult to cure. To get sustainable positive dynamics, the patient must make enormous efforts and follow all medical prescriptions.

After detoxification measures there is usually a stage of psychotherapy. The patient visits a psychotherapist to understand the following issues:

• why there was a desire to take a narcotic stimulant;
• what prevents you from quitting the drug;
• what events lead to the use of increased doses of amphetamine;
• Is there any point in quitting the drug?
• what future life could be like if I recover.

Step by step, the specialist helps the patient realize that using amphetamine is a path to death

. The doctor instills faith in a speedy recovery and gives hope for a happy future. Thanks to this, the client gains confidence in the future and begins to behave appropriately to the current situation.

If the craving for a drug is very strong, coding is indicated. In the case of amphetamine, excellent results can be achieved with the help of hypnosis or Dovzhenko’s stress therapy. Both programs are based on working with the subconscious and do not require the additional use of medications.

The final stage of drug addiction treatment is always rehabilitation. It is optimal if the patient undergoes it in a specialized center. Then his chances of healing will be much higher.

According to the feat and the reward...

Angioplasty and stenting of arteries

• Cost: 100,000 - 250,000 rubles.
• Duration: 40 minutes
• Hospitalization: 1-2 days in hospital

More details

I will not hide that the treatment of such patients, in addition to experience, requires considerable effort and time from the doctor and great pedantry in carrying out the patient’s prescriptions. However, it would be too arrogant to attribute all the successes in the treatment of heart failure only to yourself, as the attending physician. The ability to quickly and accurately diagnose the underlying disease that caused heart failure has a huge role. In 50% of cases, this is coronary heart disease, the identification and treatment of which with coronary angiography and angioplasty greatly facilitates the subsequent correction of myocardial weakness. Equally important for successful treatment is the identification of the earliest, so-called “preclinical” (i.e., before the onset of complaints) forms of heart failure, which is only possible with the use of instrumental research methods: echocardiography, Holter monitoring, stress tests. The Center for Endosurgery and Lithotripsy has not only the most modern equipment, but also highly qualified specialists, which is necessary for the detection and timely treatment of heart failure. All these conditions help to successfully achieve the task of long-term preservation of active life in one of the most severe categories of patients with heart disease - patients with heart failure. But the reward is high: over the past 5 years, there has not been a single death among my 187 patients with heart failure!