[Promethazine - an old pharmaceutical that has got a renaissance. An avalanche-like increase in the number of overdose cases in Sweden]. / Renässans för Lergigan med kraftig ökning av intoxikationsfall - Korrekt användning av fysostigmin vid överdosering medför minimal risk.

Promethazine is a phenothiazine derivative antihistamine first introduced in the 1940s that is used in multiple medical conditions as a sedative/hypnotic agent. The drug is not addictive, which probably explains why it is increasingly used in the care of drug addicts. During the recent decade the sales of promethazine in Sweden have increased threefold while the yearly number of overdose cases with this drug at the Swedish Poisons Centre has increased from 100 to nearly 700. The anticholinergic delirium that may be provoked by this poisoning carries a symptomatology which may resemble the symptoms seen after an intracranial catastrophe, wherefore some cases are exposed to unnecessary diagnostic measures and invasive ventilator treatment. The case report and literature review presented in this paper conclude that physostigmine is the drug of choice in delirium provoked by overdose of promethazine, and that its use in this setting carries a minimal risk of serious side effects.

[Overdose of modified-release paracetamol calls for changed treatment routines. New guidelines from the Swedish Poisons Information Centre]. / Överdosering av paracetamol med modifierad frisättning ökar - Etablerad behandlingsregim med N-acetylcystein otillräcklig ­ Giftinformationscentralen ger ut nya behandlingsråd.

Overdose of modified-release paracetamol calls for changed treatment routines. New guidelines from the Swedish Poisons Information Centre  The sales of modified-release paracetamol tablets are steadily increasing in Sweden as are the number of overdose cases with this formulation. The Swedish Poisons Information Centre has noted that the standard treatment protocol with N-acetylcysteine (NAC), which is based on overdoses with immediate-release paracetamol formulations, is often inadequate in this setting. In this paper, an adult who overdosed on 66.5 grams of modified-release paracetamol tablets and developed severe liver impairment (max ALT 6,660 U/l) despite timely and rigorous NAC treatment is presented. The patient's peak S-paracetamol of 2,800 µmol/l was delayed to 19 hours post-ingestion. Moreover, a pharmacokinetic and clinical study of similar cases showed that seven (21%) of the 34 patients who received NAC treatment within 8 hours after ingestion developed liver impairment. Finally, new Swedish guidelines for management of these cases are presented. The guidelines are also available on www.giftinfo.se.

Poisonings in the Nordic countries in 2007: a 5-year epidemiological follow-up.

AIM: To map mortality and morbidity of poisonings in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden in 2007 and undertake a comparison with a corresponding study in 2002. METHODS: Morbidity was as for 2002 defined as acute poisoning (ICD-10 codes, main and subsidiary diagnoses) treated in hospitals. The figures were extracted from the National Patient/Hospital Registers. Deaths recorded as acute poisoning (using corresponding ICD-10 codes) were collected from the National Cause of Death Registers. RESULTS: Annual mortality of acute poisonings per 100,000 inhabitants (rate) for 2007 was 22.4 in Finland, an important increase from 16.7 per 100,000 in 2002. The increase was mainly due to a change in coding of alcohol, but also represented a slight increase in fatal alcohol intoxications per se. The poisoning death rate in the other Nordic countries varied between 8-13 and was at the same level as for 2002. The morbidity rates for 2007 between 158-285 per 100,000 inhabitants represented a slight increase compared to 2002 figures. CONCLUSION: The increase in poisoning death rate for alcohol, and thus total rate in Finland in 2007 compared to 2002, has further increased the gap to the other Nordic countries. Poisoning morbidity rates in the Nordic countries are of the same level, but the variability shown indicates that more harmonization and collaboration is needed to increase the data quality.