Acute drug poisoning

Abstract

Data collected from poison control centers indicate on millions of poisoning due to drug overdoses and acute drug poisonings represent one of the major causes of deaths. Groups of drugs that most commonly cause acute poisoning include sedatives/hypnotics/antipsychotics (benzodiazepines above all), paracetamol and different combinations with paracetamol, drugs used in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases, opioids, antiepileptics, antihistamines, etc. The trend of drug poisoning is increasing in the world and in our country as well where the most common poisoning are those caused by psychoactive drugs, especially by benzodiazepines. This paper gives a brief overview of the toxicity of antidepressants and antianxiety drugsbenzodiazepines, antipsychotics, antiepileptic-carbamazepine, drugs used in treatment of cardiovascular diseases, antihistaminics, methotrexate, and paracetamol which is a rather significant cause of poisoning despite the fact it is OTC drug.

Podaci centara za kontrolu trovanja ukazuju na milionske slučajeve trovanja usled predoziranja lekovima, a akutna trovanja lekovima predstavljaju i jedan od značajnih uzročnika smrtnih ishoda. Grupe lekova koje najčešće dovode do akutnih trovanja su: sedativi/hipnotici/antipsihotici pre svih benzodiazepini, zatim paracetamol i različite kombinacije sa paracetamolom, lekovi koji se koriste u terapiji kardiovaskularnih bolesti, opioidi, antiepileptici, antihistaminici itd. Trend trovanja lekovima raste kako u svetu, tako i u našoj zemlji, gde su najzastupljenija trovanja psihoaktivnim lekovima, posebno benzodiazepinima. U radu je dat kratak prikaz toksičnosti benzodiazepina, antidepresiva, antipsihotika, lekova koji se koriste u terapiji kardiovaskularnih oboljenja, karbamazepina kao predstavnika antiepileptika, kao i nekih drugih lekova koji mogu biti uzročnici trovanja.