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An opioid overdose is toxicity due to excessive consumption of opioids, such as morphine, codeine, heroin, fentanyl, tramadol, and methadone. [3] [5] This preventable pathology can be fatal if it leads to respiratory depression, a lethal condition that can cause hypoxia from slow and shallow breathing. [3]
Symptoms of opioid overdoses include slow breathing, heart rate and pulse. [6] Opioid overdoses can also cause pinpoint pupils, and blue lips and nails due to low levels of oxygen in the blood. A person experiencing an opioid overdose might also have muscle spasms, seizures and decreased consciousness. A person experiencing an opiate overdose ...
The majority of drug-related deaths involve misuse of heroin or other opioids in combination with benzodiazepines or other CNS depressant drugs. In most cases of fatal overdose it is likely that lack of opioid tolerance combined with the depressant effects of benzodiazepines is the cause of death. [23]
But opioids accounted for a growing share of the substances responsible for poisonings between 2005 and 2018: Whereas 24% of the various substances that killed children in 2005 were opioids, they ...
Drug overdoses and intoxication can also cause indirect deaths. For example, while marijuana does not cause fatal overdoses, being intoxicated by it can increase the chance of fatal traffic collisions. [4] Drug use and overdoses increased significantly in the 1800s due to the commercialization and availability of certain drugs.
A person overdosing on opioids or opiates is presented with respiratory depression, a lethal condition that can cause hypoxia from slow and shallow breathing. [148] Mixing opioids with another depressant, such as benzodiazepines or alcohol, increases the chance of an overdose and respiratory depression.
Tissue hypoxia refers to low levels of oxygen in the tissues of the body and the term hypoxia is a general term for low levels of oxygen. [2] Hypoxemia is usually caused by pulmonary disease whereas tissue oxygenation requires additionally adequate circulation of blood and perfusion of tissue to meet metabolic demands.
The opioid epidemic took hold in the U.S. in the 1990s. Percocet, OxyContin and Opana became commonplace wherever chronic pain met a chronic lack of access to quality health care, especially in Appalachia. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls the prescription opioid epidemic the worst of its kind in U.S. history.