Drug abuse, whether of illicit or prescription drugs, is currently an epidemic. Patients may go into withdrawal, which can be dangerous. This is the second of a two-part series covering withdrawal states. Our first post evaluated the diagnosis and management of alcohol withdrawal. Today’s will cover opioids, benzos, cocaine, amphetamines, and caffeine.

Many active adults are interesting in boosting their athletic performance with supplements. While there have been a few proven benefits, there are many drawbacks of these supplements that may actually impair performance and compromise health. This article reviews a number of supplements, their benefits, their drawbacks and their potential for toxic adverse effects.

Several agents, both legal and illegal, can cause significantly elevated heart rates. This article reviews the most common causes of drug-induced tachycardia. Diagnosis and management of these conditions are also discussed.

The hot, altered, and stiff patient. What do you need to consider?

A great post by Core EM - Bringing core EM content to anyone, anywhere, anytime. Learn the HIET for beta-blocker and calcium-channel-blocker toxicity by Dr. Jenny Beck-Esmay, MD (@jbeckesmay)

A focused update on poisonings, toxicologic emergencies, and toxidromes with pearls, pitfalls, and myths. What can the emergency physician miss?

From the understanding of physostigmine’s mechanism of action and the above data, we would like to summarize key points and recommendations regarding the use of physostigmine.

"The lack of high-quality controlled human studies precludes ILE as a first-line agent for indications other than local anesthetic systemic toxicity" Thanks to James Cao, MD for this excellent review of the literature on the use of ILE therapy in various toxicologic emergencies.