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Dimedrol toxicity
Last reviewed: 04.07.2025
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Diphenhydramine (diphenhydramine) is an antiallergic, antihistamine, and also has a sedative and hypnotic effect. The drug has a central anticholinergic effect. This may be associated with its ability to cause delirium after taking large doses. Small doses of diphenhydramine (0.1-0.15 g) in combination with alcohol increase alcohol intoxication, large doses cause delirium.
Symptoms of diphenhydramine intoxication
The clinical manifestations of diphenhydramine delirium are similar to those caused by cyclodol. Visual hallucinations are kaleidoscopic, with episodes and pictures changing rapidly. The environment preceding intoxication usually determines the affective background (from euphoria to fear) and the content of visual hallucinations. In adolescents, after skirmishes and fights with peers, the visions are dominated by pictures of carnage. They see people threatening violence or murder. At the height of delirium, the critical attitude towards the hallucination is lost, the patient becomes dangerous to himself and others. With the combined action of alcohol and diphenhydramine, more severe psychoses occur.
Diagnostics
Below are the diagnostic features of acute intoxication due to the use of hallucinogens (F16.0). It must meet the general criteria for acute intoxication (F1*.0). The clinical picture is characterized by dysfunctional behavior or impaired perception. This is evidenced by:
- anxiety and timidity;
- auditory, visual, or tactile illusions or hallucinations that occur while fully awake;
- depersonalization;
- derealization;
- paranoid mood;
- ideas of meaning;
- mood lability:
- impulsive actions;
- hyperactivity;
- attention deficit disorder;
- impairment of personal functioning.
In addition, at least two of the following signs must be present: tachycardia; palpitations; sweating and chills; tremors; blurred vision; dilated pupils; loss of coordination.
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Hallucinogen intoxication examination
Diagnosis of cyclodol and diphenhydramine toxicomania is carried out by identifying facts of acute intoxication in the clinical picture of the disease. Typical manifestations of drug addiction syndrome: syndromes of altered reactivity, pathological craving, withdrawal, personality changes (residual mental disorders).
Forecast
The long-term effects of hallucinogen use are manifested by mental dullness ("mental deafness"), observed for many days after their intake, psychoses with rich symptoms, continuing after the drug is eliminated from the body. Relapses of hallucinations, according to various sources, occur in 16-57% of LSD users as a result of exposure to provoking factors: stressful situations, taking other psychoactive substances or a somatic disease. In some cases, hallucinogens provoke endogenous psychoses. A complication of their intake is anxiety-depressive syndromes with suicidal tendencies. These complications more often occur in people with anxious, unstable, schizoid character traits and in a prepsychotic state. Long-term addiction to hallucinogens is rarely observed due to the lack of pronounced euphoria when taking them and the unpredictability of each episode of intoxication. Withdrawal syndrome does not always occur. Tolerance to hallucinogens develops quickly and disappears quickly (within 2-3 days). Some specialists hold the opposite point of view. They describe vivid manifestations of drug addiction syndrome when abusing hallucinogens.