Consequences of an overdose of phenazepam

What could be the causes of drug poisoning?

When treating with phenazepam, an overdose develops due to non-compliance with the rules and recommendations for its use.
Most often it occurs in people who take it not as prescribed by the doctor. Self-medication with this drug is very dangerous. The main causes of phenazepam poisoning include:

• self-medication with the drug. The dosage of this medicine should be selected exclusively by a doctor. When calculating it, the weight, age of the patient, the severity of symptoms, and medications that the person constantly takes are taken into account;
• Phenazepam poisoning in children can develop if this medicine is stored in places where a child can find it. Children love to taste everything and put it in their mouth. All medications should be kept locked up at home, where they cannot find them. The dangers of self-administration of medications should be explained to the child from an early age;
• drug overdose for the purpose of suicide. This drug can cause death if a lethal dose is taken;
• combining phenazepam with alcohol, narcotic substances or certain medications. Ask your doctor who prescribed this medicine what exactly it is prohibited to combine phenazepam with.

General information

Phenazepam belongs to the group of benzodiazepine drugs. In medicine, it stands out for its excellent anti-anxiety, anticonvulsant, and hypnotic effects. This is a drug with sedative and muscle relaxant effects. An overdose leads to short-term euphoria, which is why phenazepam is distributed among drug addicts. Dependence on phenazepam is similar to a drug addiction - first mental addiction occurs, then physical addiction. Withdrawal syndrome occurs when phenazepam is abruptly discontinued and taken without medical reasons.

The drug is used in clinical practice for the treatment of neurotic, neurosis-like, psychopathic and psychopathic conditions, accompanied by anxiety, fear, increased irritability, and emotional lability. In addition, phenazepam is used in combination therapy to alleviate the condition in patients with epilepsy and in cardiology.

Chekulaev Matvey Igorevich, Maksimova Tatyana Vladimirovna, Barsegyan Samvel Serezhaevich The danger of phenazepam as a street drug // Medical and pharmaceutical journal “Pulse”, 2015.

Clinical picture of the pathological condition

Since treatment with this medication is a common practice, some naive patients believe that they can cope with its prescription on their own. This is a misconception, since the drug is usually prescribed in a long course, up to two months.

The dosage is gradually increased to maintain the effectiveness of therapy. Moreover, its use is accompanied not only by rapid addiction, but also by the so-called “withdrawal syndrome”.

In this regard, overdose does not seem so uncommon. Its main symptoms affect:

• decreased reflexes,
• drowsiness,
• confusion,
• muscle tremors,
• dyspnea,
• low blood pressure,
• slow heartbeat,
• stupor,
• coma.

All this leads to the fact that the consequences of an overdose can not only significantly undermine health, but also send the patient to the intensive care unit.

If a person has taken the medication for too long, he will exhibit the following symptoms:

• lethargy,
• a state close to depression,
• slowing of reflexes,
• headache,
• mood swings,
• memory impairment,
• disorientation.

In all of the above cases, emergency medical care will be required. If the poisoning is acute, you will need to call an ambulance.

What to do if you develop an overdose of phenazepam

Is it possible to help a person who has been poisoned by phenazepam? The first thing you should do is seek medical help. As soon as drug poisoning occurs, you must immediately call emergency medical help. You will not be able to help the victim yourself. By phone, briefly inform the dispatcher about what happened and give your address.

While waiting for doctors, begin to provide first aid to the patient yourself. In severe cases, a person’s survival and the nature of the consequences for his health depend on it.

First aid consists of the following components.

Gastric lavage

Primary self-treatment should begin with gastric lavage. Thanks to it, it is possible to remove the remains of tablets that have not had time to be absorbed into the bloodstream. Stomach cleansing can only be done by conscious people.

Try to do it as quickly as possible, before the person has time to fall into a coma or fall sound asleep.

In order to rinse the stomach, you need to drink a liter of plain water in one gulp and immediately throw it up. You can provoke vomiting by putting several fingers in your mouth and pressing them on the root of the tongue. For maximum effectiveness, gastric lavage should be repeated several times.

Water for gastric lavage should be at room temperature. It is not advisable to add potassium permanganate to it. This substance can cause burns to the mucous membrane and intoxication.

Sorbents

These drugs help neutralize the drugs you take. You can use any sorbents that are available in your home medicine cabinet.

Drugs that are diluted with water, for example, atoxil, smecta or enterosgel, will work faster. But if they are not there, you can drink regular activated carbon or sorbex.

Sorbents should be washed down with water. It accelerates their dissolution and action.

Remember that sorbents are drugs that should be available in any home medicine cabinet. They help with any poisoning or intestinal infection. These medications have a limited shelf life, so check them periodically and, if necessary, replace them with “fresh” medications.

Drink plenty of fluids

Give the patient some sweet tea or plain water. You should drink slowly, in a sitting position. Due to the action of phenazepam, the poisoned person may have impaired swallowing reflexes and may choke on drink. Stay close to him while he drinks.

What to do if a person is unconscious

If the poisoned person has lost consciousness, place him on a hard, flat surface. To prevent him from choking on vomit or a sunken tongue, turn his head to the side. To increase blood flow to the heart and brain, raise his legs up. For example, you can put them on several pillows.

Before doctors arrive, monitor the patient for a pulse and breathing. Their absence indicates the development of clinical death.

Check the pulse in the area of ​​the carotid artery in the neck. This large vessel passes in this area just under the skin and its pulsation is easy to feel. To check for breathing, place your hand on the victim's chest. If he is breathing, you will see how the hand rises as you inhale and falls as you exhale.

When clinical death develops, begin chest compressions. His technique is taught at school or in first aid courses. Mouth-to-mouth breathing is carried out only if resuscitation assistance is provided by more than one person.

Health care

Ambulance doctors conduct a quick medical history, examination, and check vital signs (pulse, blood pressure, respiration and saturation). Show them the drug with which the person was poisoned, tell them the approximate number of tablets he took. You should also describe the first aid that you managed to provide to him yourself.

First aid is provided by doctors at the scene of the incident and consists of:

• gastric lavage through a tube (performed for patients who are unconscious);
• droppers with solutions to reduce intoxication and improve the functioning of blood vessels and internal organs;
• drugs that regulate breathing, blood pressure and cardiac contractility;
• oxygen mask;
• cardiopulmonary resuscitation (carried out in case of clinical death).

After providing emergency care, doctors hospitalize the patient in the toxicology or intensive care unit, where he undergoes subsequent treatment and examination. In case of severe poisoning, dialysis is performed - blood purification.

Phenazepam poisoning is a dangerous condition in which the central nervous system is affected, breathing and heart function are impaired. If an overdose of this drug develops, you should immediately call an ambulance.

Before the doctors arrive, you can rinse the patient’s stomach and give sorbents and liquid to drink. Treatment of this poisoning is carried out in the toxicology department or in intensive care.

Its duration depends on the patient’s condition, the number of phenazepam tablets taken and the timeliness of seeking medical help.

Overdose of Phenazepam in children

It is especially scary if a child has eaten Phenazepam, since the child’s body is less adapted to withstand such substances.

Almost always, kids take a huge dose of pills by mistake. This could be a game of “doctor” or a fatal accident. Teenagers may use the means to attempt to threaten parents as suicide.

Among children's statistics on this issue, the leaders are children under three years of age, who “try everything” while their parents leave them unattended.

The symptoms of poisoning in children are the same as in adults, but may additionally include severe vomiting and deafness.

Experts say that treatment is more successful among children than among teenagers. The reason is that teenage children have some problems with instability of the functioning of the heart muscle.

Symptoms of poisoning

The severity of Phenazepam poisoning depends on the number of tablets taken. Develops within 30 minutes. It is always accompanied by a loss of consciousness or the formation of deep sleep.

In adults

Poisoning occurs in several stages. Mild symptoms include:

• constant desire to go to bed;
• weakness;
• decreased attention and performance.

Signs of average:

• formation of deep sleep;
• depression of consciousness to the point of complete stupor;
• breathing problems;
• severe inhibition.

If left untreated, a serious condition may develop. Symptoms of an overdose of Phenazepam:

• development of coma;
• respiratory depression;
• muscle stiffness;
• clonic twitching in the limbs;
• pulmonary edema.

An overdose is determined by the absence of consciousness. A person who has been poisoned does not respond to external stimuli. It's hard to bring him to his senses.

In adults, an overdose begins with the formation of deep sleep. This condition may last for several days.

In children

"Phenazepam" often causes the development of household poisoning with Phenazepam. A child, especially at a young age, may take pills without understanding their dangers. Their use is strictly prohibited. For this reason, 10 pieces are needed to develop an overdose. Symptoms:

1. Change of consciousness. Most often, coma quickly appears.
2. Hallucinations.
3. Headache.
4. Movement disturbances.

It should be noted that Phenazepam is used by adolescents for the purpose of suicide. They can only take it at home, since the product is sold strictly according to prescription. Parents need to take this point into account.

An overdose of Phenazepam threatens complete intoxication of the human body. At the first sign of exceeding the dose, you should call an ambulance and try to keep the person conscious until they arrive so that he does not fall asleep.

When poisoned with Phenazepam, the patient feels a borderline state, drowsiness, difficulty breathing, lack of pupillary reaction to light, mortar, tremor, shortness of breath, and coma may occur.

Algorithm for providing first aid in case of overdose of Phenazepam:

1. Call doctors (ambulance).
2. Do not allow the victim to fall into phenazepam sleep.
3. Induce vomiting.
4. Try to rinse your stomach.
5. Give activated carbon, other sorbents or laxatives to quickly remove toxins.
6. Prepare plenty of fluids and consume in small doses.

It is necessary to understand that any amount of alcohol and Phenazepam taken together can lead to death. Doctors consider the generally accepted lethal dose of Phenazepam to be 10 mg.

For example, a package of 10 pcs. contains 1 mg of active ingredient per tablet.

The package will be lethal if consumed at once or throughout the day, in combination with any alcoholic beverages. With regard to the solution, everything is different: here the daily dose should not exceed 7 ml, i.e. You cannot use more than 7 ampoules of the medicine.

Action on the body and effect of phenazepam: physical and mental changes

A calming effect on the nervous system and a relaxing effect on muscle tissue are the basis for the medical use of phenazepam. Self-administration of the substance or exceeding the dosage leads to severe drowsiness, inhibition of thinking and reactions. The drug disrupts the functioning of the human brain and changes the body’s sensitivity to painful stimuli.

Most of the mechanism of action affects the limbic region of the brain - the feeling of anxiety is reduced, neurotic reactions are dulled. When prescribed medically, the correct dosage can eliminate chronic anxiety and correct sleep-wake cycles.

A recreational dose provokes painful physical symptoms:

• feeling of dizziness, disorientation in space and time;
• inhibited reactions;
• problems with coordination and gait;
• pain in the head, feeling of weakness in the muscles;
• tremor of hands and feet;
• nystagmus - rhythmic, chaotic movements of the eyeballs;
• problems with constructing sentences and words;
• pale skin tone;
• dilated pupils;
• chills;
• strong feeling of thirst, dry mouth;
• disturbance of appetite, stool, urination;
• Allergy, development of urticaria, skin itching of varying severity is possible.

After consumption, the heart rate increases and blood pressure decreases. Reactions are unpredictable depending on health indicators and body characteristics. Taking the drug is accompanied by psychomotor overexcitation and aggression. A large dose will lead to hallucinations and seizures.

The target of phenazepam is GABAergic receptors. Due to the fact that GABAergic synapses are distributed in almost all parts of the brain (cortex, cerebellum, limbic system, basal ganglia, etc.), the drug affects most brain functions.

A.V. Gorodnichev. Moscow Research Institute of Psychiatry of Roszdrav. Phenazepam in the 21st century: reality and modernity. 2008.

The tone of skeletal muscles sharply decreases, especially in the legs. The pupils have a slow reaction to light. Often the tongue becomes covered with a white coating. At the beginning of the action, increased talkativeness is observed. After the cessation of action, a person experiences severe drowsiness, physical and mental weakness, lethargy, and a feeling of weakness. On the mental side, taking the drug leads to the following symptoms:

• the emotional-mental sphere is disrupted;
• inability to concentrate;
• consciousness is confused, a stream of chaotic thoughts;
• problems with short-term and long-term memory;
• mood swings, mostly in a negative direction;
• libido surges;
• inhibition processes are disrupted - the person becomes restless and does not control his behavior;
• a feeling of lightness in the body, a feeling of weightlessness and flight;
• lack of objective perception of the world.

Rarely, phenazepam can cause psychotic reactions and the development of psychosis. The effects depend on the sensitivity of the individual organism to the chemical composition.

The functioning of the autonomic nervous system is disrupted. This is accompanied by increased sweating and decreased blood pressure. Body temperature rises, appetite is lost, nausea and vomiting are possible.

Diagnosis of intoxication

Providing timely assistance is not always possible due to the unconscious state of the patient and the lack of testimony from witnesses about what the person took. To determine the toxin that has poisoned the body, differential diagnosis is carried out first.

Based on the symptomatic picture, doctors alternately exclude drugs that lead to poisoning. An ECG is performed to determine the state of the cardiac system. To determine the concentration of Phenazepam in the circulatory system, an analysis is performed - spectrophotometry.

A diagnostic technique, the study of ascidosis, can indicate possible complications. The analysis reveals the presence of a large accumulation of acids in the blood, which provoke a number of complications in the future and inhibit the removal of the toxic substance.

Treatment in hospital

Therapy for intoxication with Phenazepam is carried out in a medical hospital. The patient undergoes deep lavage of the gastrointestinal tract. Depending on the symptoms of poisoning and the severity of the clinical picture, drugs to normalize the functioning of breathing and heartbeat are selected individually.

To quickly relieve the symptoms of intoxication and restore the body, the patient is administered the antidote of Phenazepam - Anexat. The dosage of the antidote is 0.2 mg through a dropper over 30 seconds with a gradual increase in dosage until it reaches 5 mg.

The antidote is not administered to patients diagnosed with epilepsy. An antidote is not used in case of mixed poisoning with several drugs.

Treatment of an unconscious patient begins with intubation of the respiratory tract, followed by gastric lavage. To quickly remove the toxin from the body, diuretic drugs are administered; in case of severe clinical picture, forced diuresis is performed.

In the absence of positive dynamics from drug treatment, hemodialysis or hemosorption is prescribed.

When a victim is admitted to a hospital, he should be provided with professional assistance as quickly as possible. The timely response of medical personnel is very important, since in such cases there is a high risk of death.

After first aid has been successfully provided to the patient, he is urgently hospitalized and treatment continues in a hospital setting.

First of all, doctors must perform gastric lavage and also introduce a neutralizer of the active toxic substance. In the future, specialists will focus on the current condition of the victim, as well as his indicators of the cardiovascular system.

Next, symptomatic therapy is performed, which includes medications from the cardiac and respiratory support group. If necessary, medications that stimulate the central nervous system may be prescribed. It is worth preparing for the fact that comprehensive recovery may take quite a long time.

To avoid all this, it is enough to simply refuse self-medication and listen to the instructions of your doctor. He knows exactly what the patient needs better.

Content:

1. When does an overdose of Phenazepam occur?
2. Consequences of an overdose of Phenazepam - symptoms.
3. Chronic form of pathology.
4. Diagnostics.
5. How to provide first aid to a victim.
6. Complications of an overdose of Phenazepam.

Phenazepam is a tranquilizer; the drug calms the nervous system, relieves anxiety, eliminates obsessive thoughts and fears, and helps normalize sleep. An overdose of Phenazepam can have the most serious consequences - from daytime drowsiness to coma and death.
The medicine is usually prescribed by psychiatrists and psychotherapists for insomnia, anxiety disorders, and to alleviate hangover syndrome as part of complex therapy. Available in pharmacies strictly according to prescription.

Main contraindications to the use of the product

Despite the fairly widespread use of this medicine, it has an impressive list of contraindications, which includes:

• glaucoma,
• myasthenia gravis,
• age up to 18 years,
• pregnancy and lactation period,
• shock,
• to whom,
• acute respiratory failure.

Story

In the 90s and early 2000s, the drug was often prescribed to patients with seizures, epilepsy, anxiety, depression, and insomnia. The drug was synthesized in 1975 in the USSR. The molecule of the substance was

and obtained at the Institute of Physics and Chemistry in Odessa. V.V. worked on the development of the drug. Zakusov, S. A. Andronati, A. V. Bogatsky and others.

Phenazepam was originally invented for military medicine. Later, it was used to treat drug treatment patients - the medicine helped in the fight against alcoholism and other addictions. Therapeutic effects include a potent hypnotic and sedative effect.

Phenazepam as a drug began to spread in Western Europe. The first cases of overdoses and abuse were recorded in Britain in the early 2000s. The drug is available due to its low cost and fast action. Drug addicts often start using phenazepam to alleviate withdrawal symptoms from other drugs.

Today, phenazepam is banned as a medicine in most countries. In Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus, the product is produced and sold in pharmacies.

First aid

It starts with identifying vital signs. They establish breathing and heart function. If they are absent, resuscitation is performed. Followed by:

• Induce artificial vomiting. Applies only in the first two hours.
• Lay the victim on his side.
• Provide oxygen flow.
• Give glucose. It could be a piece of sugar.

Enterosorbent is used in the form of activated carbon. Calculation: 1 tablet per 10 kg of body weight. In case of poisoning with Phenazepam, treatment is carried out in a hospital setting.

If a person is conscious at the time of an overdose, he is given gastric lavage. Give several glasses of warm liquid and then induce a gag reflex.

Having noticed the adverse effects of taking Phenazepam, it is necessary to immediately provide first aid to the victim. But before this you need to call an ambulance as quickly as possible.

Now let's look at how to remove Phenazepam from the body:

1. If the victim is still conscious, it is necessary to induce vomiting to relieve the symptoms of poisoning. To do this, you need to drink about one and a half liters of sodium sulfate or salt. Instead, about three liters of water can be used with this solution.
2. Next we take activated carbon. To do this, the tablets should be crushed and mixed in water. In addition to coal, adsorbents such as White Coal, Sorbex, etc. can be used.
3. Until the ambulance arrives, you must not leave the victim’s side. Monitor his condition: if he loses consciousness, you must ensure that he does not choke on vomit. To prevent this, you need to turn the body on its side, pulling its tongue out of the mouth.

In case of poisoning, further discontinuation of phenazepam is necessary. Since the consequences of taking phenazepam can be very serious, you should seek medical help even if vomiting occurs. Due to the rapid absorption of the drug, it will be possible to neutralize its effect only with the introduction of an antidote.

What is the lethal dose of Phenazepam?

The amount of the drug that can cause death depends on a number of associated factors, including the condition of the victim’s body, the presence of chronic diseases, the fact of addiction, etc. Alcohol consumption is also very important, since, as mentioned above, this medication is incompatible with alcoholic beverages .

Important! The instructions say that the maximum daily dose of this drug is 0.01 grams. Taking more of the drug inevitably leads to poisoning and further complications, including death.

What is the lethal dose?

It is impossible to say exactly what dosage will be fatal for a person; this is influenced by many different factors:

Life-threatening combination

• general health of the patient
• drinking alcohol
• heart failure or pathological heart disease
• addiction to Phenazepam
• major depression and psychological disorders
• serious chronic diseases

What are Baralgetas tablets for, dosage for use

Along with the medication, the package contains instructions that indicate the maximum permissible dosage. You can take no more than 0.01 grams per day. If you take more than the specified amount, intoxication will certainly occur, which is accompanied by serious complications, and death is possible.

Indications for use

The use of phenazepam is prohibited in the following cases:

• For glaucoma;
• Children under 18 years of age;
• With myasthenia gravis;
• In a coma;
• In cases of acute respiratory failure;
• Nursing and pregnant women.

Important! The use of Phenazepam should be extremely careful in cases of liver and kidney failure, organic brain damage, depression, and alcohol dependence. In addition, it is not advisable for older people to take this drug.