Overdose

A dose is the amount of a substance necessary to safely achieve a desired therapeutic effect while producing no or minimal side effects. For prescription medicines, physicians determine appropriate dosing based on the patients age, sex, weight, metabolism, and other factors.

“Overdose” Explained

Technically, an overdose occurs any time the patient exceeds the dose; however, because many illegal substances do not have “appropriate doses” and because the effects of an overdose sometimes (but not always) depend on the amount in excess of the dose, “overdose” has come to describe using an amount of a substance that results in harm or death to the user.

Reasons for Overdoses

Being aware of the situations in which an overdose may occur can help you prevent them for yourself or someone else.

Mixing Substances – Some addicts get into a cycle of using “uppers” to stimulate themselves and “downers” to relax themselves; others want to enhance the high that they are experiencing and experiment with multiple substances. In either situation, the person may overdose because they do not understand that mixing drugs with opposite effects on the central nervous system can, in essence, “cancel each other out” and necessitate even higher doses to produce the effects that each would alone. Although it is better to avoid substance use for recreational purposes entirely, it is important to understand how different substances interact if doing so is unavoidable.
Confusion – Overdoses are particularly problematic among elderly patients who are taking a large number of medications at different times and frequencies throughout the day, especially if some of the pills look similar to each other. Because of the risk, patients in this situation should ask family, friends, or their health care provider for assistance with creating a safe and easy way to sort and dispense medications.
Mood Boosting, Suicide Attempts, or “Cries for Help” – There is a strong correlation between addiction and depression; an unintentional overdose may occur if the person is feeling down and believes that they need to take a higher dose to counterbalance their negative emotions. Similarly, someone who is depressed may just use a substance without being conscious of how much they are taking. In intentional overdoses, people may feel that they must take drastic action for others to intervene and help them (a cry for help); alternately, they may feel so low and hopeless that, as it may have been for a long time before, the substance is a permanent “way out” of their negative situation.
Relapse – As an addiction develops, the addict may grow increasingly tolerant of the drug (depending on the substance); in other words, he or she needs to progressively increase the amount used to recreate the high from the first use. However, after a person has been through withdrawal, tolerance decreases during the period of sobriety. If a recovering addict does not realize this, he or she may administer the high dose that was last used when unable to resist cravings or effectively cope with stressors, both of which commonly lead to relapse.