-
Bath salts emerging as new recreational drugs
Oct 24, 11 Clinical UpdatesThe use of bath salts as recreational drugs has greatly escalated in recent years. Researchers from the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma describe an incident of a man experiencing significant agitation, paranoia, and hallucinations who also exhibited violent behavior upon his emergency department arrival.
His case is not unique. Despite disclaimers of “not for human consumption” package warnings, according to the American Association of Poison Control Centers, calls for bath salt poisoning incidents have skyrocketed, with 1,782 since January 2011 compared with 302 in all of 2010. The inexpensive powdery substances with benign names contain stimulants not detectable through drug screens. However, they can produce a “high” along with increased blood pressure, increased heart rate, agitation, hallucinations, extreme paranoia, and delusions, not unlike the Oklahoma patient.
Treatment for ingesting these bath salts is sedation until the side effects wear off, along with supportive care. Although currently federally unregulated, 26 states have made these substances illegal. This new research was presented at CHEST 2011, the 77th annual meeting of the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP), in Honolulu, Hawaii.
A new designer drug known as “bath salts†has become increasingly popular and increasingly scary. Poison centers across the U.S. have reported growing numbers of calls about the synthetic stimulant, and more and more states are banning the drug. But as of now, there is no federal law prohibiting their sale.
Make no mistake: These are not bath salts like those you would use in your bath.
WebMD talked to Zane Horowitz, MD, an emergency room physician and medical director of the Oregon Poison Center, about what they are and why you should avoid them.
First of all, what are bath salts?
“The presumption is that most bath salts are MDPV, or methylenedioxypyrovalerone, although newer pyrovalerone derivatives are being made by illegal street chemists. Nobody really knows, because there is no way to test for these substances,” Horowitz says.
###
Contact: Sue Roberts
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
847-498-8334
American College of Chest PhysiciansAlso in this section:
Subscribe to the "News" RSS Feed 
TOP ۞
