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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]
Special consideration must be taken in individuals with opioid dependency as naloxone administration can induce severe opioid withdrawal, hence the recommended starting doses above. [20] Goal of naloxone therapy is to restore respiratory drive in the individual, however mechanical ventilation may still be necessary during initial resuscitation.
By definition it causes an increased concentration of carbon dioxide (hypercapnia) and respiratory acidosis. Hypoventilation is not synonymous with respiratory arrest , in which breathing ceases entirely and death occurs within minutes due to hypoxia and leads rapidly into complete anoxia , although both are medical emergencies.
Chest wall. Wooden chest syndrome is a rigidity of the chest following the administration of high doses of opioids during anesthesia [1]. [1]Wooden chest syndrome describes marked muscle rigidity — especially involving the thoracic and abdominal muscles — that is an occasional adverse effect associated with the intravenous administration of lipophilic synthetic opioids such as fentanyl [2].
Hypoxia can be due to external causes, when the breathing gas is hypoxic, or internal causes, such as reduced effectiveness of gas transfer in the lungs, reduced capacity of the blood to carry oxygen, compromised general or local perfusion, or inability of the affected tissues to extract oxygen from, or metabolically process, an adequate supply ...
And more than 400,000 go to an emergency room for that reason.” Clinics that dispensed painkillers proliferated with only the loosest of safeguards, until a recent coordinated federal-state crackdown crushed many of the so-called “pill mills.” As the opioid pain meds became scarce, a cheaper opioid began to take over the market — heroin.
The synthetic opioid is what’s known as a partial agonist — meaning there’s a limit to how much the medication can affect people who use it. In the U.S., buprenorphine is mainly sold under the brand name Suboxone, in which form it’s combined with naloxone, the drug that can reverse the effects of an 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.