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Oh shit. I just accidently ODed on my drugs

taniaaust1

Senior Member
Messages
13,054
Location
Sth Australia
I just got confused on my drugs and forgot that the 10mg tablets to which I was taking the max dose my specialist told me to take ..30- 50mg so Id been taking 5 of them.. Forgot he'd sswitched the 10mg tablets to 25mg.. so now Ive accidently ODed on them and took double the dose he told me I could take up to, due to confusing taking 5 10mg pills with 25mg pills.. umm my maths is really screwed, just realised that is more then double the amount he told me I could take up to.


Im shocked at what Ive just accidently done. crap.. I can be quite drug sensitive too. (sure this wont go and kill me.. just hoping it dont cause me any bad affects tonight. Going to bed now.. maybe I should ring hospital first to just let them know its been an accident in case something went really wrong.
 

Sushi

Moderation Resource Albuquerque
Messages
19,935
Location
Albuquerque
I just got confused on my drugs and forgot that the 10mg tablets to which I was taking the max dose my specialist told me to take ..30- 50mg so Id been taking 5 of them.. Forgot he'd sswitched the 10mg tablets to 25mg.. so now Ive accidently ODed on them and took double the dose he told me I could take up to, due to confusing taking 5 10mg pills with 25mg pills.. umm my maths is really screwed, just realised that is more then double the amount he told me I could take up to.


Im shocked at what Ive just accidently done. crap.. I can be quite drug sensitive too. (sure this wont go and kill me.. just hoping it dont cause me any bad affects tonight. Going to bed now.. maybe I should ring hospital first to just let them know its been an accident in case something went really wrong.

Tania,

You've got us very worried! Do you mind saying what the drug is? Or can you check with a pharmacist to see what might be the consequences of an overdose on this med?

Best wishes,
Sushi
 
Messages
15,786
Please do call the hospital or poison control or whatever to make VERY VERY SURE that the drug you took too much of isn't dangerous at that dose.
 
Messages
15,786
Looking at Tania's drug journal, it's probably amitriptyline. 125mg is above the maximum dose indicated for any use, and it's a high enough dose of a tricyclic that it does represent a risk of toxicity/poisoning.

Is there anyone that can call her or even knows where she lives and could contact emergency services?
 

taniaaust1

Senior Member
Messages
13,054
Location
Sth Australia
hi guys.
Yeah its the amitriptyline. I rang the hospital and the hospital when I told them told me I may have to come into hospital and they gave me another number (to the drug call place) to ring to see what they said about the drug and that dosage.

So ive rang the other place and was told by them to go immediately to hospital or call an ambulance... Im now stuck with not knowing what to do. I DO NOT want to call an ambulance as I cant afford it and as my health insurance changed their policy, I only get one trip per year.... also if I go to the local country hospital.. they will believe Ive done this on purpose due to my past history and probably get me locked away in mental ward again

No way in hell are I going to that hospital..but I have no way to get to another one. So I think Im going to risk this OD
 

taniaaust1

Senior Member
Messages
13,054
Location
Sth Australia
If anything happens to me due to this.. its another ME/CFS death. My brain fog made me confuse my drugs... and I wont go to THAT hospital as all the doctors at that one are very bad with ME/CFS and why Im now seeing another doctor in a different town .

I will not risk them not believing it was accidental, some of the doctors here never believed in ME and kept sending me to psychriastrists trying to get me diagnosed with mental health disorders... I wont risk them not believing me and being locked in a mental ward again.
 

Dreambirdie

work in progress
Messages
5,569
Location
N. California
Tania--Jeeeez! I can understand that you don't WANT to go to the hospital, but if you're at risk of serious harm, then that might be the most sensible thing to do.

Here's what wikipedia says:

Overdose
Main article: Tricyclic antidepressant overdose
The symptoms and the treatment of an overdose are largely the same as for the other TCAs. The British National Formulary notes that Amitryptyline can be particularly dangerous in overdose,[12] thus it and other tricyclic antidepressants are no longer recommended as first line therapy for depression. Alternative agents, SSRIs and SNRIs are safer in overdose, though they are no more efficacious than TCAs.

Please just go to the hospital.
 
Messages
13,774
Sorry to hear about your troubles, and being in such a difficult situation.

Do you know anyone who works in medicine and who could give you personal advice about this?
 
Messages
13,774
At the very least, would it be worth you eating something solid to pad your stomach? Could you ring to get further adivce from the helpline, and explain that you really do not want to go to hospital - see what they say?
 

Nielk

Senior Member
Messages
6,970
Tania,

Are you still there? Can you ring the prescribing doctor or the pharmacist where you got this med from?
Please answer us if you can as we are all very worried about you! At least call a friends who can drive you to a doctor ir emergency clinic.
 
Messages
10,157
The dose of Amitryptyline for depression is usually 100 - 125 mg per day. The problem is that people react differently and any hospital you call is legally required to tell you to go in to be seen by a doctor. They have no way of assessing if the person has taken more than they are reporting and if something happens to that person they would be legally responsible if they told them not to bother coming in. Can you call your doctor or a pharmacist, Tania or a poison control line that deals with toxicity. Is there a walk-in clinic you can go to. I think you might want to act on this if you are concerned, why risk your health on making assumptions on how you could potentially be treated at the hosptial.

Kina.
 

gu3vara

Senior Member
Messages
339
Are you 100% sure that you took 125 mg? You should be safe with this dose as 150 mg is the max dose, but not being used to that much of the drug could be quite unpleasant. With ME/CFS anything is possible though. I would call a pharmacist, the best person to tell you what to do.

I found this :

t sounds like what you're asking for is the actual figures. We don't have those exactly, because interpatient variability is a big factor in terms of the actual amount of drug it'll take to harm or kill a person. However, in the interest of answering your question properly, I can tell you that the LD50 of Amitriptyline is 350mg/kg in mice. This is the dose required to kill 50% of the population (so, in other words, it's the average lethal dose). So, we can apply that to humans by multiplying for their weight. Let's assume the average adult (male) weighs 75kg. So, 350mg x 75 kg = 26250mg or 26.25g.

In terms of amount of tablets, we need to consider what dose each Elavil (which I thought is now called Endep, but maybe not where you live) tablet is. Where I live, Endep/Elavil comes in 10, 25, 50, 75, 100, and 150mg tablets. So, you can work that out for whatever tablet size you're interested in.

You'll note that these figures will be far higher than the 100 tablets your doctor quoted, but this is because the LD50 in mice/rats always WAY overestimates the lethal dose in humans. Also you need to think that LD50 is amount required per mouse to kill half a mouse population, the LD10 (or amount required per mouse to kill 10% of the mice) could be something like 100mg/kg.

And then there's even more factors involved. If you have poor renal function, you won't excrete the drug as well as another person and therefore more will be retained in your body at any given time so you would need to add less to that to reach a toxic dose.

It's a very inexact science, but those are the best figures we have!
 

taniaaust1

Senior Member
Messages
13,054
Location
Sth Australia
Valentijin has made me do as two different hsoptials have now told me to do.. and ring an ambulance.. the second hospital i rang told me I cant be taken there as they dont have a doctor there tonight and I will need to be ambulance to the city.. ambulance is on its way

.. Please guys if you dont hear by me by tomorrow night Australia time.. please bother the hospital of where i are.. as Im scared they may think Ive done this on purpose and lock me away. Ill be either at the royal adelaide hospital or flinders medical centre. Sth Australia

bye ambulance here
 

Nielk

Senior Member
Messages
6,970
I think that it would be a good idea for this forum to ask people to give the phone number of the next of kin so that at times like this we can call them.
 
Messages
13,774
bye ambulance here

All the best. I hope it turns out to not be too much trouble for you, and you get sent quickly back to have a pleasantly drugged evening.

Are you 100% sure that you took 125 mg? You should be safe with this dose as 150 mg is the max dose, but not being used to that much of the drug could be quite unpleasant. With ME/CFS anything is possible though. I would call a pharmacist, the best person to tell you what to do.

My quick googling showed people taking 250 mg as their standard does... but people can have strange reactions, and it was quite a big increase in dose (although I also found people starting on 60 mg from nothing). Taking such a big increase without having consulted a doctor must have been a risk, and medical advisers were telling her to go to hospital.

Now that tania has gone, and I need not feel worried about leading her astray with my laziness, I have to admit that I probably would have eaten a big meal and hoped for the best.

I feel really sympathetic though. Being exhausted makes these sorts of mistakes so much more likely, and makes sorting them out so much more difficult.
 
Messages
15,786
She suddenly had some bad symptoms that weren't ME-related, and called the hospital nearest to her. They haven't treated her well in the past, which is why she was reluctant to go there until there really weren't any other options.

Oh, and I sorta promised we'd all storm the hospital if they try to lock her up, so try to keep your schedules open :D