What Do Pain Killers Do if You Take Too Many?
Question by vickidk3: what do pain killers do if you take too many?
i’ve always wondered that, does it get you high or something?
Best answer:
Answer by Just Another Guy
Drugs called “opioids” are frequently prescribed to relieve pain, but if abused they can kill. Over the past 15 years, sales of opioid pain killers, including oxycodone, hydrocodone, methadone and fentanyl, have increased, and deaths from these drugs have increased in parallel.
Ninety-five percent of unintentional poisoning deaths are drug overdoses; in recent years, prescription-drug overdoses have overtaken cocaine and heroin overdoses as the leading cause of poisoning deaths, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said. In fact, a recent spike in prescription-drug overdoses is the cause of the first increase in the nation’s injury death rate in 25 years, according to CDC injury-prevention expert Len Paulozzi.
In 2007, about 2,000 Floridians — 500 in the Tampa Bay area — fatally overdosed on prescription drugs. The vast majority of the lethal drugs were opioid painkillers like oxycodone, hydrocodone and morphine.
Between 1999 and 2002 the number of overdose death certificates that mention poisoning by opioid pain killers went up by 91.2%. The pain killer category showed the greatest increase.
In 2003, a total of 28,723 persons died of drug-induced causes in the United States. The category ‘drug-induced causes’ includes not only deaths from dependent and nondependent use of drugs (legal and illegal use), but also poisoning from medically prescribed and other drugs. It excludes unintentional injuries, homicides, and other causes indirectly related to drug use. Also excluded are newborn deaths due to mother’s drug use. These figures have risen dramatically from 2003 to 2008.
Even aspirin is dangerous if too many are taken. The toxic dose of aspirin is generally considered greater than 150 mg per kg of body mass. Moderate toxicity occurs at doses up to 300 mg/kg, severe toxicity occurs between 300 to 500 mg/kg, and a potentially lethal dose is greater than 500 mg/kg. This is the equivalent of many dozens of the common 325 mg tablets, depending on body weight. However children cannot tolerate as much aspirin per unit body weight as adults can.
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