A drug overdose (overdose or OD) is the ingestion or application of a drug or other substance in quantities much greater than are recommended. Typically it is used for cases when a risk to health will potentially result. An overdose may result in a toxic state or death. The word "overdose" implies that there is a common safe dosage and usage for the drug; therefore, the term is commonly applied only to drugs, not poisons, even though many poisons as well are harmless at a low enough dosage. Drug overdose is sometimes used as a means to commit suicide, as the result of intentional or unintentional misuse of medication. Intentional misuse leading to overdose can include using prescribed or non-prescribed drugs in excessive quantities in an attempt to produce euphoria. Usage of illicit drugs, in large quantities, or after a period of drug abstinence can also induce overdose. Cocaine users who inject intravenously can easily overdose accidentally, as the margin between a pleasurable drug sensation and an overdose is small. Unintentional misuse can include errors in dosage caused by failure to read or understand product labels. Accidental overdoses may also be the result of over-prescription, failure to recognize a drug's active ingredient or unwitting ingestion by children. A common unintentional overdose in young children involves multivitamins containing iron. The term 'overdose' is often misused as a descriptor for adverse drug reactions or negative drug interactions due to mixing multiple drugs simultaneously. Signs and symptoms of an overdose vary depending on the drug or exposure to toxins. The symptoms can often be divided into differing toxidromes. This can help one determine what class of drug or toxin is causing the difficulties. Symptoms of opioid overdoses include slow breathing, heart rate and pulse. 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.

About this result
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.
Related courses (1)
BIO-478: Pharmacology and pharmacokinetics
This course introduces the student to the fudamentals of pharmacology, pharmacokinetics and drug-receptor interactions. It discusses also pharmacogenetics and chronopharmacology, to exemplify the chal
Related lectures (14)
Neurotransmitters: GABA and Glycine
Explores the classification and effects of GABA and Glycine neurotransmitters, including drug interactions.
Targeting: Biomaterials and Therapeutics
Delves into passive and active targeting mechanisms in biomaterials for therapeutic delivery to diseased cells, emphasizing the use of liposomes.
Drug Targets: Receptors, Enzymes, and Therapeutics
Explores drug targets, including receptors, enzymes, and therapeutics, covering pharmacodynamics, case studies on NSAIDs, diabetes, and drug toxicity.
Show more
Related publications (19)

Optimised three-dimensional in vitro retinoblastoma models tailored for drug discovery and clinical translatability

Irina Sinenko

Retinoblastoma, while relatively rare, stands as the most prevalent intraocular cancer. In Switzerland, the survival rate approaches 100%, but it drops to less than 50% in low-income countries. The current treatment options for retinoblastoma rely on a lim ...
EPFL2023

Translational screening platform to evaluate chemotherapy in combination with focal therapy for retinoblastoma

Paul Joseph Dyson, Valentin Simeonov, Fabien Kuttler, Irina Sinenko, Patrik Aouad

Retinoblastoma is the most common pediatric eye cancer. It is currently treated with a limited number of drugs, adapted from other pediatric cancer treatments. Drug toxicity and relapse of the disease warrant new therapeutic strategies for these young pati ...
WILEY2023

NICEdrug.ch, a workflow for rational drug design and systems-level analysis of drug metabolism

Vassily Hatzimanikatis, Jasmin Maria Hafner, Homa Mohammadi Peyhani, Noushin Hadadi, Anush Chiappino-Pepe

The discovery of a drug requires over a decade of intensive research and financial investments – and still has a high risk of failure. To reduce this burden, we developed the NICEdrug.ch resource, which incorporates 250,000 bioactive molecules, and studied ...
2021
Show more
Related concepts (28)
Opioid
Opioids are substances that act on opioid receptors to produce morphine-like effects. Medically they are primarily used for pain relief, including anesthesia. Other medical uses include suppression of diarrhea, replacement therapy for opioid use disorder, reversing opioid overdose, and suppressing cough. Extremely potent opioids such as carfentanil are approved only for veterinary use. Opioids are also frequently used non-medically for their euphoric effects or to prevent withdrawal.
Sedative
A sedative or tranquilliser is a substance that induces sedation by reducing irritability or excitement. They are CNS depressants and interact with brain activity causing its deceleration. Various kinds of sedatives can be distinguished, but the majority of them affect the neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA). In spite of the fact that each sedative acts in its own way, most produce relaxing effects by increasing GABA activity. This group is related to hypnotics.
Alcohol (drug)
Alcohol, sometimes referred to by the chemical name ethanol, is a depressant drug that is the active ingredient in drinks such as beer, wine, and distilled spirits (hard liquor). It is one of the oldest and most commonly consumed recreational drugs, causing the characteristic effects of alcohol intoxication ("drunkenness"). Among other effects, alcohol produces happiness and euphoria, decreased anxiety, increased sociability, sedation, impairment of cognitive, memory, motor, and sensory function, and generalized depression of central nervous system (CNS) function.
Show more

Graph Chatbot

Chat with Graph Search

Ask any question about EPFL courses, lectures, exercises, research, news, etc. or try the example questions below.

DISCLAIMER: The Graph Chatbot is not programmed to provide explicit or categorical answers to your questions. Rather, it transforms your questions into API requests that are distributed across the various IT services officially administered by EPFL. Its purpose is solely to collect and recommend relevant references to content that you can explore to help you answer your questions.