A 22-year-old man with no significant medical history is transferred from the airport to the emergency department (ED) in a semiconscious state after returning from a 3-week vacation in a malarial zone. According to one of his traveling companions, the patient was at his baseline mental status when boarding the plane for [...]

Although banned in 2013 as a probably human carcinogen, a group of chemicals called polybrominated biphenyl ethers are still around— in soil, food, and in our blood. PBDEs are a group of compounds that were used as flame-retardants mainly in  plastics, and they were also used extensively in the latter part [...]

Finally, we now have a rapid urine test for fentanyl.  In the past, we had to send out suspected urine for a quantitative analysis that often took many days.  Now, within minutes we will know whether an individual has the drug in his or her system.  Here's the communique. The [...]

Urine drug tests (UDTs) are broken down into two separate categories, screening UDTs and confirmatory UDTs.  Screening UDTs are immunoassay tests involving antibody technology.  Screening UDTs have a higher risk of false positive and false negative results compared with confirmatory UDTs that are done by gas chromatography and mass spectrometry [...]

One of the consequences of an open Southern Border is the entrance into the U.S. of unprecedented amounts of illicit drugs.  Additionally, much of these drugs have been spiked with lethal doses of fentanyl.  Fentanyl is the most potent of all narcotics.  On a dose:dose basis fentanyl is 50 times [...]

A new large prospective cohort study was just released in the British Medical Journal from a research group in France demonstrating that Food Emulsifiers that appear in most processed foods are harmful to health, especially, cardiovascular health.  Here are the main points of the study that were summarized in Medscape, [...]

An article recently appeared the weekly CDC Morbidity and Mortality Report (MMWR) that addressed eCigarette poisonings reported to Poison Control Centers across the country.  One surprising finding from this data is that children less than 5 years old account for almost 2/3 of all poisoning cases.  Below is the MMWR [...]

A new study just published in Lancet shows that Paxlovid does not increase the incidence of rebound COVID infections.  Rebound is defined as an increase in viral load after a short period of recovery from a primary COVID infection.  The rebound rates in those who took Paxlovid were not statistically [...]

Recently an article appeared in the Wall Street Journal regarding the Inflation Reduction Act and the effects it will have on the development of new medical and surgical treatments.  Those effects are numerous and profound, and also come with a health and safety impact.  Thus, toxicologists and other medical safety [...]

Usually when we think of MDMA, Molly's, Ecstasy, or Methamphetamine in the context of toxicology, we think of poisoning and overdose.  This blog is about the opposite, the treatment of depression and anxiety with very low doses of these methamphetamine-derived substances.  And the results have been surprising good. Here's an [...]

Some recent research has elegantly established that when an alcoholic stops drinking brain damage persists and actually progresses. Damage to the brain caused by alcohol continues during the first few weeks of abstinence, a finding that refutes the notion that the brain begins to normalize immediately after individuals stop drinking. [...]

Final results of tests performed by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on 30 kratom products confirm the presence of heavy metals, including lead and nickel, at concentrations not considered safe for human consumption, the FDA said Wednesday. The FDA first warned of "disturbingly" high levels of heavy metals, [...]

Drug overdose remains a significant concern worldwide, with nearly half a million deaths annually. In the United States, drug overdoses are the leading cause of death for adults younger than 55 years. Drug-related deaths now outnumber those attributed to motor vehicle accidents and homicides. According to information from the Centers for Disease Control and [...]

A very interesting study has recently been done on the effects of a psychedelic substance in a small mitigated-psychedelic dose in the treatment of resistant depression and anxiety. The following is a synopsis of the key points from a recent Medscape article.  The relevance of this study to toxicology is [...]

New warning from the FDA-- a warning about Aortic Aneurysm Risk With Fluoroquinolones in patients being treated for common infections The agency is urging healthcare providers to avoid prescribing the powerful antibiotics to patients with or at risk for an aortic aneurysm, such as those with peripheral atherosclerotic vascular disease, [...]

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says it will issue a rule that bans the sale of methylene chloride to consumers but allows for its continued use in commercial products. The deadly chemical is found in paint and furniture strippers. Many stores, including Lowe’s and Walmart, had already stopped selling products [...]

The number of cannabis-associated emergency department (ED) visits has risen sharply since marijuana was legalized in Colorado. New data show that although inhalable cannabis use accounts for most of these visits, edible cannabis is tied to a disproportionate number of visits, and patients present with different symptoms. Although less frequent overall, edible [...]

Fentanyl overdoses are increasing at a dramatic rate in the United States.  Visits to Emergency Rooms are far more frequent now than they were just a few years ago.  Fentanyl is a synthetic opiate that when blending with heroin becomes a life-threatening toxic cocktail as it is 50-100 times more [...]

Nearly half of patients with suspected synthetic-cannabinoid-receptor agonist (SCRA) intoxication test negative for an SCRA, and many test positive for another substance, researchers report.  Clinicians caring for patients with reported synthetic-cannabinoid exposures must have a high index of suspicion for other drugs of abuse, trauma, or other medical conditions, and should [...]

Experts say that other issues pertaining to poor sleep quality, such as light exposure and certain behaviors, should be tackled ahead of resorting to use of the hormone melatonin to regulate sleep.  But if it is used, an individual's daily onset of natural melatonin production should be taken into account [...]

Deaths from drug overdose in the United States increased by 54% from 2011 to 2016 — with opioids, benzodiazepines (benzos), and stimulants the most commonly used drug classes involved, a new report released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), shows. The [...]

Recently published in the Acad. Emerg. Med. December 28, 2018 Most patients who overdose on opioids can be safely discharged from the emergency department (ED) as early as an hour after prehospital administration of the opioid antagonist naloxone, the study has found. Opioid-related ED visits nearly doubled in the United States [...]