Feb 22, 2019
Author: Aaron Lessen, MD
Educational Pearl:
- A double ingestion of a single pill is typically a benign event but several drug classes may cause problems
- A published review of 10 years of single medication double dose ingestion found 12 out of 876 cases had adverse events. The drugs and events were:
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- Propafenone ingestion leading to ventricular tachycardia
- Beta blocker ingestion leading to bradycardia and hypotension
- Calcium channel blocker leading to bradycardia and hypotension
- Bupropion ingestion leading to seizures
- Tramadol ingestion leading to ventricular tachycardia
Editor’s Note:
References:
Correia MS, Whitehead E, Cantrell FL, Lasoff DR, Minns AB. A 10-year review of single medication double-dose ingestions in the nation's largest poison control system. Clin Toxicol (Phila). 2019 Jan;57(1):31-35. doi: 10.1080/15563650.2018.1493205. Epub 2018 Nov 28. PubMed PMID: 30484705.
Summarized by Travis Barlock, MS4 | Edited by Erik Verzemnieks, MD