Although not universal, vomiting, seizures or convulsions, irregular heartbeat, and loss of consciousness or alertness are common across overdoses of several different substances. Your health care provider may refer to an overdose as an ingestion. An overdose is when you take more than the recommended amount of something, often a medicine or drug. The following are some questions people frequently ask about drug overdose. There are a range of treatments available for different kinds of drug overdose.
How can I prevent poisonings at home?
Anyone experiencing a substance use disorder should seek treatment to address their symptoms. Treatment may involve therapy, certain medications, or rehabilitation programs. Even after administering this medication, it is crucial to take anyone experiencing an opioid overdose to the emergency room. The rate of deaths from drug overdose has increased steadily over the past couple of decades. § Ethanol and other selected drugs (e.g., naloxone and cotinine) were not considered a drug for this analysis; deaths categorized as IMFs only (Panel A) or stimulant only (Panel B) might have also had ethanol or these other selected drugs detected. Food poisoning, also known as foodborne illness, is sickness caused by eating food contaminated with infectious organisms like bacteria, viruses, or parasites, or toxins in food.
Public Health
- If you are experiencing suicidal thoughts, contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 for support and assistance from a trained counselor.
- If you see these signs of overdose, do not abandon the person out of fear of getting in trouble.
- Poisoning occurs when someone or something (such as the environment) exposes you to dangerous chemicals, plants, or other harmful substances without your knowledge.
- Overdosing on a stimulant such as cocaine increases heart rate, temperature, and blood pressure.
- Dissemination can be strengthened by partnerships and can be tailored and scaled up to meet local circumstances.
- It discusses what a drug overdose is, why it occurs, and how to prevent it.
For example, a young child may accidentally take an adult’s medicine. If you take too much of something on purpose, it is called an intentional or deliberate overdose. If you are experiencing suicidal thoughts, contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 for support and assistance from a trained counselor.
Providing supportive care, administering medication such as naloxone, and calling 911 can all help treat certain types of drug overdose. Symptoms of a drug overdose may include breathing difficulties, changes in heart rate or body temperature, seizure, stroke, and more. A drug overdose means that an individual has consumed a toxic amount of a substance. According to the National Harm Reduction Coalition, ingesting meaning of overdose too much of one or multiple drugs can harm the body. Do not leave it up to the person to tell you they are overdosing; they may not know or not be able to communicate it to you.
General Health
Another method for decreasing overdose risk is drug checking or testing substances for adulterants. Harm reduction organizations, such as syringe services programs, often distribute fentanyl and xylazine test strips or use more advanced technology to conduct point-of-service checking for multiple substances in a sample of drugs. Laws that limit access to harm reduction programs or criminalize these tools can discourage their use.
Implications for Public Health Practice
- † Routes of drug use are not mutually exclusive; decedents might have used multiple routes.
- An overdose can be accidental (i.e., you were prescribed a dose of medication, and your body does not handle it as expected), or it may be intentional.
- Overdose prevention is a CDC priority that impacts families and communities.
- The number of deaths with evidence of smoking increased 109.1%, from 2,794 to 5,843, and by 2022, smoking was the most commonly documented route of use in overdose deaths.
- During July–December 2022, most deaths with evidence of smoking (79.7%), snorting (84.5%), or ingestion (86.5%) had no evidence of injection; among deaths with information on route of use, 81.9% had evidence of a noninjection route.
- Despite these declines, more than 4,000 drug overdose deaths had evidence of injection during July–December 2022.
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicate that 106,699 people died of a drug overdose in the United States in 2021.
An antidote is a medicine or remedy to counteract the effects of a particular poison. For example, naloxone (Narcan) is a medicine that is an antidote to opioid drugs. Simply put, a poison is any substance that can cause harm to the body. In books and movies, poisons are often presented as strange and mysterious chemicals or products that, when consumed or inhaled, cause intense sickness or immediate death. In real life, most poisonings are actually much less dramatic, but can affect the human body in complicated ways. Different substances cause different symptoms during an overdose.
How can a person prevent drug overdose?
It may happen accidentally or intentionally; both are emergencies. It can be difficult to determine if someone is overdosing, but erring on the side of caution can save a life. An overdose (OD), or drug overdose, is when someone accidentally or intentionally consumes more than a safe or typical amount of a substance such as a prescription medication or drug. Knowing the signs and symptoms of an overdose and what to do if you think you or someone else may be overdosing is life-saving information.
Prevention activities help educate and support individuals, families, and communities and are critical for maintaining both individual and community health. You should seek medical help immediately if you have these symptoms or witness them in someone else and suspect they may have overdosed. The most obvious way to tell if these symptoms indicate overdose is if you know you have taken drugs or have seen someone else take drugs. Getting medical help quickly can make a big difference in the effectiveness of drug overdose treatment.
There are also animal Poison Control centers that specialize in the treatment of non-human poisonings. Some human-focused Poison Control centers can help with less severe animal poisonings, too. Overdose prevention is a CDC priority that impacts families and communities. Drug overdose is a leading cause of preventable death in the U.S.