SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT (publ. 1/15/2015, page A6)
A story about three middle school girls in Morgan Hill ingesting cold tablets incorrectly quoted Dr. Ilene Anderson, a clinical toxicologist at California Poison Control System, about potential liver damage from doing so. Anderson said taking a large number of pills that contain acetaminophen, which is sometimes an ingredient in cold, cough and congestion pills containing dextromethorphan, may cause liver injury.
MORGAN HILL — Three eighth-grade girls were hospitalized after each gulped a handful of cold, cough and congestion tablets, an idea they got after watching a You Tube video detailing how to get high by taking the medication in mass doses.
The girls on Monday each downed between 10 to 12 of the 24-hour tablets containing dextromethorphan, a cough suppressant commonly found in over-the-counter medicines. Those amounts can produce hallucinations, tremors and in rare cases, seizures, according to medical experts.
One of the girls became sick and went to the health office at Britton Middle School, according to principal Glen Webb. The other two girls were observed by a staff member and brought to the office, Webb said.
All three girls were taken to St. Louise Regional Hospital in Gilroy, but are expected to recover.
Teen abuse of dextromethorphan, or DXM, spiked about 15 years ago, both in California and nationwide, according to a study released in 2006. Joy Alexiou, a spokeswoman for Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, said abuse by teens and young adults has been “going on for a while” but the county has “not seen a particular increase” in recent months.
In 2012, California became the first state to prohibit selling over-the-counter cold and cough medications containing dextromethorphan, or DXM, to minors. The law, SB514, authored by then-state Sen. Joe Simitian, requires clerks to check identification before selling the medications.
The Morgan Hill teens told Webb they took the medication Coricidin HBP Cough & Cold, which is known on the street as “Triple C.” Dosages greater than the recommended use can produce euphoria, dissociative effects and hallucinations, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Teens who abuse cold medications containing DXM and acetaminophen are at risk of permanent liver damage, according to Dr. Ilene Anderson, a clinical toxicologist at California Poison Control System who authored the 2006 study. There have also been reports of fatal overdoses.
The study, published by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, school of pharmacy, found a sharp increase in the abuse of DXM by youth ages 9 to 17 years of age between 1999 and 2004. The number of calls to the California Poison Control Systems 24-hour hot line involving abuse of DXM increased from 23 in 1999 to 375 in 2004.
Anderson said it’s too early to determine if SB514 has made a significant impact on the number of teens and young adults abusing the cough and cold medications. The poison control hot line still receives calls regarding teen DXM abuse but has not yet done a follow-up study.
“In other situations, what I have found is once legislation is passed to control some drug of abuse, there is some lag time before it really takes an impact,” Anderson said.
In March, 2014, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration published a fact sheet about DXM stating the medicine “is abused by individuals of all ages but its abuse by teenagers and young adults is of particular concern.” The DEA said the abuse is fueled by the over-the-counter availability and extensive “how to” abuse information on various websites.
Following Monday’s incident, the school sent a mass email to parents to “let them know what happened,” Webb said. He added the school is planning to send parents educational information about DXM abuse.
Webb said the girls may face disciplinary action in accordance with the education code, but his initial concern “is for their safety and make sure they receive the treatment they need.”
Contact Mark Gomez at 408-920-5869. Follow him at Twitter.com/markmgomez.
