What Happens to the Body During an Overdose

What Happens to Your Torso During an Opioid Overdose?

Written by Robert Castan

Editor: Editorial Team

Medically Reviewer: Editorial Team

Concluding updated: March 18, 2022

What Happens During an Opioid Overdose?

Did you know that drug overdoses kill more Americans than war?

Since 1999, close to 850,000 U.Due south. citizens have lost their lives due to fatal overdoses. That is more every armed conflict going all the way back to World War I, over 100 years of combat. And the driving force behind the overdose epidemic that has been called the "worst public wellness crisis in American history" are opioids — prescription painkillers, heroin, and increasingly, powerful synthetics like fentanyl. In fact, every year, about 70% of drug deaths involve at least one opioid.

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Studies ostend that the land is in the midst of an opioid addiction epidemic. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the number of overdoses in the United states of america has tripled since 2001. Illegal drugs and prescription medications are responsible for a large number of emergency room visits. Between 2001 and 2014, deaths caused by an overdose of prescription opioid painkillers increased three and a half times. Every bit the epidemic worsens and the number of overdoses increases, it is important that individuals addicted to drugs and their loved ones recognize what happens to the trunk during an opioid overdose.

Despite the alarming increment in opioid-related overdoses, about people cannot describe exactly what occurs during the problem. A person on the verge of an overdose seldom realizes that a medical crisis is occurring. Recognizing an overdose quickly and summoning medical help is disquisitional to saving someone'due south life. This guide provides an overview of predisposing factors for overdose, potential symptoms, and steps to help the person.

"As the number of opioid overdoses and deaths increase at an alarming rate, we must take action. Information technology's time to telephone call this what it is — an emergency. Well-nigh of us know someone impacted past substance abuse – our family, our friends, our neighbors. Our hearts ache for them, just that isn't enough. We must do more."

~ Arizona Governor Doug Ducey

In the midst of this continuing and worsening tragedy that affects all of us, most people lack a basic agreement of such topics equally:

• Who is well-nigh at-hazard for an opioid overdose?
• What does an opioid overdose look like?
• How should y'all respond during an overdose emergency?
• What should happen later on an overdose?

Knowing the answers to these and other related questions tin can and volition save lives.

Overdose Risk Factors

Although at that place is no single factor that will crusade the trunk to feel an overdose, at that place are certain issues that announced to place a person at greater run a risk. These include:

• Returning to drug use after detox
• Mixing opioids with alcohol or other sedatives – whether they are known or not
• A physical tolerance requiring higher doses to attain the same effect

The body'south metabolism removes toxic substances in order to avert harmful side effects. Once the threshold has been breached, the chemicals in your system overwhelm your body's ability to process the drugs, which can result in concrete and mental damage. When the trunk is overwhelmed by powerful drugs, an overdose volition occur. The immediate symptoms of a nonfatal overdose tin last from a few minutes to several hours. Tragically, an overdose can too kill the person within seconds. Factors determining the fourth dimension that it takes for overdose symptoms to occur include:

• The specific drug or the drug combination taken
• The amounts and duration of abuse
• The method of use, such as injecting, smoking, snorting or swallowing
• Other circumstantial physical illnesses
• The individual'due south age
• The person's body weight

What Happens to Your Torso During an Opioid Overdose

The consequences of a nonfatal overdose tin can upshot in devastating, lifelong health problems. Whether you consume a pill of inject the drug, the opioid travels throughout your body, including your encephalon, heart and lungs. As the opioid circulates through your organisation, the drug engages receptors responsible for triggering diverse mental and physical reactions.

When the opioid reaches your encephalon, it interacts with the region that produces the happiness brain chemic dopamine. The drug enables the brain to produce a larger than normal corporeality of dopamine. As the high tapers off, you may brainstorm to autumn comatose. Your head may brainstorm to dip or jerk equally you drift betwixt slumber and consciousness. The drug also interacts with the portion of the brain that regulates breathing. During an opioid-related overdose, your breathing can slow downward considerably or stop.

The drug besides causes your heart rate to wearisome. Extremely slow breathing or extended pauses foreclose your lungs from transferring oxygen to the blood. When oxygen levels fall, your center may begin to crush erratically. These aberrant heart rhythms may cause you to experience cardiac arrest.

Because of the loftier level of opioids in your system, your brain stops receiving and sending the correct signals. The body will begin shutting down. Lack of oxygen-rich claret menses causes brain harm. Highly sensitive, the encephalon can be permanently damaged considering of insufficient oxygen within as piddling every bit 4 minutes. CPR and colder temperatures during the overdose may reduce the amount of damage. The lack of oxygen from an opioid overdose can as well cause seizures that damage your brain. The seizure may crusade paralysis and impair your ability to speak.

Some people experiencing an overdose may foam at the mouth and asphyxiate on the secretions. The overdose may cause pulmonary edema, a condition that occurs when fluid enters the space surrounding the lungs. During an overdose, you may inhale liquid and choke considering opioids interfere with the body's natural gag reflex, the natural response that prevents secretions from inbound your windpipe, or trachea. Inhaling liquid causes serious complications because this prevents the lungs from receiving oxygen and removing carbon dioxide. This situation can irreparable harm or kill the incapacitated individual.

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Signs of an Overdose

Each person reacts differently depending upon the opioid that he or she took.

Common warning signs of an opioid overdose include:

• The person is unresponsive or unconscious
• The person is awake simply cannot communicate
• The torso is very limp
• You hear a deep snoring or shallow raspy-sounding breaths
• Breathing is very tedious and shallow or absent
• The lips and fingernails are blue or gray
• The skin is clammy and sweaty
• Airsickness or cream at the mouth

If you are unsure, treat every situation every bit an overdose and phone call for emergency medical attending.

The Opioid Crisis in Arizona

"We've all heard the first-person stories of individuals who take been impacted past this crisis.  Many here today accept been personally impacted. But there are and then many other stories we haven't heard — because the individuals impacted didn't survive. More than 800 just last yr. This bill is for them,"

~ Governor Ducey, signing the Arizona Opioid Epidemic Act

According to statistics from the Arizona Section of Health Services, the opioid crisis has created a real and pressing need for intervention and treatment services in Arizona. From June 15, 2017 to July 31, 2020 there were:

• 47,503 suspected opioid overdoses.
• 6,597 suspected opioid deaths.
• 2,123 infants born with neonatal abstinence syndrome.

As might be expected, the majority of opioid deaths in Arizona happen in Maricopa County, domicile to Phoenix, Mesa, Chandler, Scottsdale, and Glendale.

There is good news, however. The tragedy could have been much worse, if non for the timely administration of life-saving overdose reversal drugs. During that same time period:

• 89,266 doses of naloxone were dispensed.
• 27,423 doses of naloxone were administered to opioid overdose victims.

Naloxone utilize in Arizona is encouraging, and follows a national trend. In 2012, U.S. pharmacies only gave out one,282 naloxone prescriptions. Only past 2017, that number had increased to 271,000. And in the one-yr period between 2017 and 2018, it doubled to 557,000 prescriptions dispensed.

Equally a direct result, drug deaths in the United States savage to under 68,000, decreasing for the outset time since 1999.

Responding to an Opioid Overdose

"The epidemic of deaths involving opioids continues to worsen. Prescription opioid misuse and use of heroin and illicitly-manufactured fentanyl are intertwined and securely troubling issues."

~ Dr. Thomas Frieden, sometime Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

The Harm Reduction Coalition has released pace-by-step guidelines advising what to do during an opioid overdose emergency:

First, quickly assess the state of affairs, checking for:

• Is the person breathing?  If non, call 911 and give a few rescue breaths.
• Are their skin, fingertips, or lips discolored?
• Can they speak?
• Do they answer when y'all call/yell their name or shake them?

If they exercise not wake upwards or reply, try direct pain stimulation:

• Vigorously rub/dig your knuckles into their sternum. Practice the aforementioned on their upper lip.

If they respond to any of your efforts, endeavour to get them to wake up fully and focus. Talk to them to meet if they are confused.

If they complain of shortness of jiff or tightness, pressure level, or hurting in their chest, call 911. Practice NOT let them get dorsum to sleep.

If they do NOT reply, this is a medical emergency – call 911 right away. Do not worry about existence arrested, even if you were doing drugs with them. Arizona has a "Good Samaritan" law in place to protect people who try to assist overdose victims.

If they are not animate and you know CPR, administer it until they start breathing or until help arrives.

While you lot wait for the paramedics, place the person in the "recovery position" – move them on their side, with one knee joint bent for support. This position helps keep their airway clear and prevents them from aspirating and choking on their own vomit.

If y'all have an opioid overdose reversal drug such as Narcan, follow the instructions and administrate it now.

Emergency Treatment During an Overdose

While waiting for medical assist to make it with medications like NARCAN® to reverse the effects of the opioid overdose, take the following steps.

• Try to wake the person.
• Make sure that the airway is clear and open. If there is something in the person'south oral cavity, remove it and extend the neck frontwards to open up the airway as much as possible.
• Check for breathing and pulse.
• Perform CPR as needed.
• Loosen restrictive clothing
• Place the individual on his or her side with one human knee draped frontwards to prevent vomit from blocking the airway.
• Proceed the person warm.
• Do not requite the person any fluids.
• Stay with the person until help arrives.
• Inform get-go responders what drug, how much and when it was taken if possible.

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What You Demand to Know Most Naloxone

"Addiction to heroin and other opiates – including sure prescription painkillers – is impacting the lives of Americans in every land, in every region, and from every groundwork and walk of life – and all too oft, with mortiferous results. Used in concert with Good Samaritan laws, which provide amnesty from criminal prosecution to those seeking medical help for someone experiencing an overdose, naloxone can save lives."

~ Eric Holder, former U.South. Attorney Full general

Naloxone is the generic name for the brands Narcan and Evzio. It is an emergency opioid overdose reversal medication that is available as a nasal spray or an injection. When used properly and promptly, it quickly restores normal breathing, usually within 2-3 minutes.

Naloxone binds directly to the brain's opioid receptors, blocking the uptake of any opioid molecules for the next 90 minutes. More than importantly, it dislodges any opioid molecules currently in place, reversing the overdose and restoring normal breathing.

Considering it totally blocks all opioid effects, naloxone also immediately triggers astringent opioid withdrawal. The symptoms are not dangerous, but they are extremely unpleasant:

• Painful, throbbing headache
• Runny olfactory organ
• Excessive sweating
• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Diarrhea
• Musculus pain and cramps
• Irritability

Naloxone volition Non reverse other types of overdoses, such as benzodiazepines, cocaine, or barbiturates. Simply if you are unsure of the substance, ALWAYS administer naloxone anyhow. If the drug causing the overdose IS an opioid, naloxone will reverse the overdose and save the person'south life. If information technology is Non an opioid, naloxone has no adverse outcome.

Naloxone will block Any opioid –

• Natural – opium, morphine, codeine
• Semi-synthetic – heroin, oxycodone (OxyContin, Percodan, Percocet), hydromorphone (Dilaudid), hydrocodone (Vicodin),  buprenorphine
• Synthetic – fentanyl, carfentanil, Gray Expiry, U-47700, Pink

When stronger opioids like fentanyl or other synthetics are involved, multiple doses of naloxone may be required.

Frequently Asked Questions Nigh Opioid Overdose

What Causes People to Overdose on Opioids?

People overdose on opioids much also frequently. Just the question is, why do they do it? In that location are a few unlike reasons:

• Many people overdose because they want to take an opioid drug to get high. They may be using a drug that is new to them and so, they are not familiar with its effects. Taking too much at once can result in an overdose.
• A lot of opioid overdoses happen considering the person took an actress dose or they took an boosted dose earlier it was fourth dimension. This tin be washed either on purpose or completely by accident.
• Sometimes people volition mix opioids with other drugs, such as booze or illegal substances like cocaine or heroin. Both can issue in augmented effects from the opioids, which tin can atomic number 82 to an overdose. Also, they should never be mixed with benzodiazepines like Xanax and Valium. That blazon of combination has proven to be potentially fatal.
• Many opioid overdoses occur because the individual took a medication that was not prescribed to them. The majority of teens who overdose on these drugs say that they got them from someone else; most likely a family fellow member. But the same is true for adults every bit well.
• Some opioid overdoses take identify every bit the outcome of a relapse. The person was previously taking an opioid drug like Vicodin or heroin and they decided to quit. What they do not realize is that their tolerance level has dropped, and if they take their usual dose, it ends up being too much.

Who is at Risk for an Opioid Overdose?

It makes sense that people who employ illegal opioid drugs like heroin would be more than at hazard for an overdose that someone who takes prescription painkillers. Simply the same is true for people who combine them with other medications or booze. If people decide to increase their dosages on their own, that besides increases their take chances.

People with some medical conditions also accept a higher chance of overdosing on opioids. This is true for people with reduced liver or kidney functions every bit well equally for people with sleep apnea.

How Can People Forestall More Opioid Overdose Deaths?

Everyone can exercise their part to assist prevent more people from dying from opioid overdoses. Pedagogy is so disquisitional, and the more than people know almost the dangers of these drugs, the better.

If a loved one is addicted to opioids, they may non be enlightened of the take a chance of overdosing. Their family can make a big difference in their life by talking to them about those risks and even considering staging an intervention to assist them in getting aid.

Is Overdosing on Opioids a Sign That it is Time to Consider Getting Professional Help?

Overdoses are scary, life-threatening situations. When a person survives an opioid overdose, it should exist seen as a cry for help, even if they practice not want to cease using. At that point, information technology is obvious that their drug use has gotten out of control.

If the person refuses to get help, the family can step in and phase a professional intervention. We stress the word professional considering this should never exist done without some blazon of oversight. An interventionist who understands the all-time ways to address this result with the addict and the family unit is ofttimes the all-time option.

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Avoiding Overdose: Opioid Addiction Treatment in Arizona

"The precipitous increases and variations across states and counties indicate the demand for better coordination to accost overdose outbreaks spreading across county and land borders."

~ The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Even if it is not fatal, experiencing or witnessing an opioid overdose should exist a life-changing wakeup telephone call that things need to change. It is the "ane more chance" that besides many struggling addicts never get.

Overdose reversal drugs like Narcan are non free passes that allow you to continue engaging in dysfunctional and cocky-destructive behaviors. Rather, they are resource that give you lot the time to get the help and support you lot need.

As one of the meridian drug rehabs Scottsdale has to offering, SpringBoard Recovery is your start and best option when you are ready to begin your ain personal sober journey. By using a treatment approach that uses both evidence-based strategies and holistic therapies, SpringBoard Recovery gives yous the tools to safely and successfully regain your long-term sobriety.

To get immediate assistance, contact SpringBoard Recovery TODAY.

Sources:

• Vocalization: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/half-dozen/half-dozen/15743986/opioid-epidemic-overdose-deaths-2016
• CNN: https://www.cnn.com/2014/02/04/health/how-heroin-kills/alphabetize.html
• Webmd: https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/habit/drug-overdose#2-3
• Arizona Opioid Epidemic Human action: https://azgovernor.gov/sites/default/files/opioidepidemicactweb_0.pdf
• Arizona Department of Health Services: https://www.azdhs.gov/prevention/womens-childrens-wellness/injury-prevention/opioid-prevention/index.php
• State of Reform: https://stateofreform.com/news/2018/12/arizona-governor-doug-ducey-releases-policy-primer-on-opioid-epidemic/
• Centers for Illness Command and Prevention: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/68/wr/mm6831e1.htm?s_cid=mm6831e1_w%22
• National Harm Reduction Coalition: https://harmreduction.org/issues/overdose-prevention/overview/overdose-basics/responding-to-opioid-overdose/
• Narcan: https://www.narcan.com/
• Medline Plus: https://medlineplus.gov/opioidoverdose.html
• Centers for Illness Control and Prevention: https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/index.html

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