{"title":"Groundbreaking Research from NIDA Addressing the Challenges of the Opioid Epidemic.","authors":"Nora Volkow, Leslie R Dye","doi":"10.1007/s13181-024-01041-w","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s13181-024-01041-w","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The 2024 ACMT Ward and Ryan Donovan Memorial Fund lecture was presented by Dr. Nora Volkow, the director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This article in an edited version of her keynote address during ACMT's 2024 Annual Scientific Meeting. During the course of her talk, Dr. Volkow discussed the historical factors contributing to the ongoing global opioid epidemic, examined the evidence behind different front-line and policy strategies used to battle the opioid epidemic, and highlighted the importance of recent cultural changes that support more deliberate screening for substance use disorders and pathways for initiating treatment of opioid use disorders in vulnerable populations. An urgent need exists to improve inclusion of social and structural determinants of health in implementation science addressing opioid use disorders, with better attention to special populations, including Native American Indians and Alaskan Natives, African Americans, those over 65 years of age, and teenagers.</p>","PeriodicalId":16429,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Medical Toxicology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-11-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142604502","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Kieran Kristensen, Badria Alhatali, Tharwat El Zahran, Ziad Kazzi
{"title":"Assessment of Clinical Toxicological Resources in Countries Belonging to the World Health Organization's Regional Office of the Eastern Mediterranean.","authors":"Kieran Kristensen, Badria Alhatali, Tharwat El Zahran, Ziad Kazzi","doi":"10.1007/s13181-024-01038-5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s13181-024-01038-5","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>Poison Centers are vital to prevent and manage exposures to chemicals, toxins, and ionizing radiation. However, many countries still lack sufficient poison information center services. Within the World Health Organization's Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office (EMRO) region, we were not able to identify a formal assessment of its toxicological resources. We sought to assess the clinical toxicological resources in the EMRO region and the attitudes, needs, and perspective of the workforce in that region. METHODS: This was a two part survey study. First, we developed a poison center questionnaire and scoring system based on the World Health Organization's Guidelines for Establishing a Poison Center; this instrument was administered by phone to poison center directors and faculty in the EMRO region. Questions assessed for the presence or absence of important poison center capabilities listed in the WHO guidelines, and points were assigned based on response. Secondly, we administered an electronic workforce survey to clinical toxicology professionals in the region; participant eligibility for the workforce survey was based on the membership roster of MENATOX.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Out of 22 EMRO countries, 16 countries have an established poison center, and 14 of 16 participated in the poison center survey. The results reflected a wide variability in capabilities among countries. Areas such as call centers, clinical toxicology units, laboratory services, and data management were relatively lacking while some other areas including toxicovigilance, chemical incidents and emergencies, antidotes/antivenoms, poisoning information sources, and the availability of free services were relatively stronger. Twenty-seven out of 32 workforce respondents were physicians. Results from that survey highlighted a desire for more support from government and better compensation.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Our study identified areas of need for the EMRO region. The poison center survey results reflect large disparities among countries with some areas being stronger than others. The workforce survey highlighted issues such as compensation and government recognition. Overall, a formal assessment of individual poison centers can provide benchmarks to drive improvement of services, but further research is needed to identify and characterize country-specific needs.</p>","PeriodicalId":16429,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Medical Toxicology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-10-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142502295","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Leveraging Trauma Informed Care for Digital Health Intervention Development in Opioid Use Disorder.","authors":"Krishna Venkatasubramanian, Johanna Appleton, Tina-Marie Ranalli, Kunal Mankodiya, Dhaval Solanki, Stephanie Carreiro","doi":"10.1007/s13181-024-01040-x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s13181-024-01040-x","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Digital health refers to the use of information and communication technologies in medicine (including smartphone apps, wearables, other non-invasive sensors, informatics and telehealth platforms) to prevent illness, deliver treatment, and promote wellness. This rapidly proliferating group of technologies has the potential to reduce harm for people with opioid use disorder (OUD) and facilitate the recovery process; however, development in this space for OUD has been slower compared to that for other medical conditions. Unique issues with OUD management surrounding patient provider relationships, interaction with the healthcare system, autonomy and trust sometimes hinder care approaches, including those in digital health. The trauma informed care framework (TIC), developed for use by organizations to support individuals who have experienced trauma, has particular applicability for digital health interventions in OUD care. This manuscript will serve as a review of TIC principles and how they can be applied to digital health interventions to increase access, equity, and empowerment for people with OUD. We will highlight representative current and pipeline digital technologies for OUD, challenges with these technologies, TIC models for OUD, and the integration of TIC principles into digital technology development to better serve people with OUD. Finally, we will posit strategies to incorporate the aforementioned principles into future research efforts. We ultimately aim to use TIC as a lens through which to develop digital technologies to help individuals with OUD while minimizing harm.</p>","PeriodicalId":16429,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Medical Toxicology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-10-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142502296","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Madeline H Renny, Jonathan C Berger, Cindy Mei, George T Loo, Jacqueline A Ansah, Alec D Severe, Roland C Merchant
{"title":"Substance Use among Youth Presenting to the Pediatric Emergency Department.","authors":"Madeline H Renny, Jonathan C Berger, Cindy Mei, George T Loo, Jacqueline A Ansah, Alec D Severe, Roland C Merchant","doi":"10.1007/s13181-024-01032-x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s13181-024-01032-x","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objective: </strong>Our primary objective was to determine the frequency and type of substance use in youth presenting to our pediatric ED (PED). Our secondary objective was to identify characteristics associated with higher-risk substance use.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We conducted a tablet-based, anonymous, self-administered screening for substance use using a modified version of the Screening to Brief Intervention (S2BI) tool among a convenience sample of 383 patients 12-21 years presenting to an urban, academic PED from February to July 2023. Patients' attitudes toward ED screening and interventions for substance use also were collected. The frequency and type of substance use was analyzed by age group. Ordinal logistic regression was used to identify characteristics associated with higher-risk use (monthly or more substance use) and lower-risk use (past year use), as compared to no past year use.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Among 14-17-year-olds (n = 144), 38% reported substance use in the past year; 25% had higher-risk use. Among 18-21-year-olds (n = 172), 67% reported substance use in the past year; 48% had higher-risk use. Alcohol, cannabis, and tobacco were most commonly used. Substance use was rare for 12-13-year-olds. Compared to youth 14-17 years, youth 18-21 years were more likely to have either higher-risk use (aOR 3.81, 95% CI (2.24-6.47)) or lower-risk use (aOR 2.74 (1.41-5.35)), rather than no use. Compared to Asian patients, Non-Hispanic White patients (aOR 5.23 (1.07-25.66)) and Hispanic patients (aOR 3.18 (1.06-9.58)) were more likely to have higher-risk use than no use. Most patients reported that it was important for youth to be asked about substance use in the ED and to be offered help for substance use.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Youth substance use was common in this urban, academic PED, and many patients reported higher-risk use. These findings support future research to determine the best practices for ED substance use screening and ED-based interventions for youth.</p>","PeriodicalId":16429,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Medical Toxicology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-10-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142467853","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Patrick C Ng, R Madelaine Paredes, Allyson A Mireles, Tara Hendry-Hofer, Vikhyat S Bebarta, Gerry R Boss, Jae-Hyek Choi, Col Joseph K Maddry
{"title":"Cyanide Medical Countermeasure Development: Assessing the Efficacy of Intramuscular Sodium Tetrathionate for the Treatment of Acute, Severe Cyanide Toxicity in Swine (Sus scrofa).","authors":"Patrick C Ng, R Madelaine Paredes, Allyson A Mireles, Tara Hendry-Hofer, Vikhyat S Bebarta, Gerry R Boss, Jae-Hyek Choi, Col Joseph K Maddry","doi":"10.1007/s13181-024-01037-6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s13181-024-01037-6","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>Given its availability and lethality, cyanide has potential for weaponization and thus has the attention of several governmental agencies. In large scale exposure scenarios, an effective countermeasure that can be administered quickly and in low volume intramuscularly may prove valuable because IV medications may have limited practical applications in these situations. Sodium tetrathionate, a potential cyanide antidote, is a compound that provides sulfur to rhodanese, the enzyme that detoxifies cyanide endogenously. Additionally, sodium tetrathionate has been reported to directly react with cyanide and is effective when administered intramuscularly. In this study, we assess the efficacy of sodium tetrathionate, when administered intramuscularly for the treatment of acute, oral cyanide poisoning in swine.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We conducted a prospective trial approved by the 59th Medical Wing Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee comparing intramuscular sodium tetrathionate (n=6) to no treatment control (n=4) in animals (Sus scrofa) exposed to a lethal dose of oral potassium cyanide. Survival at 120 minutes was the primary outcome. Lactate, a cyanide toxicity biomarker, was measured. At the study end, all animals were euthanized in compliance with the Animal Welfare Act and the American Association for Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care. Survival between groups was summarized using a Kaplan-Meier survival curve after comparing survival by log-rank, Mantel-Cox analysis. The Mann-Whitney U test was used for comparison of other variables between groups.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>At baseline animals were similar. There was 100% survival in the treatment group and 0% survival in the control group (P=0.0011). Serum lactate significantly increased in the control group (control: 5±0.9 vs. treatment: 2.1 ± 0.5 mmol/L at 20 minutes).</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Sodium tetrathionate (intramuscular) significantly improved survival in a large, swine model of acute, oral cyanide poisoning. Future studies will be directed at further assessing sodium tetrathionate as a potential medical countermeasure for cyanide poisoning.</p>","PeriodicalId":16429,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Medical Toxicology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-10-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142391189","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Kristine Nañagas, Sarah Huber, Robert Avera, Shannon Penfound, Adam Overberg
{"title":"In Response to Comment on \"Safety of Physostigmine for Pediatric Antimuscarinic Poisoning\".","authors":"Kristine Nañagas, Sarah Huber, Robert Avera, Shannon Penfound, Adam Overberg","doi":"10.1007/s13181-024-01023-y","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s13181-024-01023-y","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":16429,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Medical Toxicology","volume":" ","pages":"440"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11436496/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141860067","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Adrienne Hughes, Alexandra Amaducci, Sharan L Campleman, Shao Li, Mari Costantini, Meghan B Spyres, Hannah Spungen, Jessica Kent, Alyssa Falise, Rachel Culbreth, Paul M Wax, Jeffery Brent, Kim Aldy
{"title":"The Toxicology Investigators Consortium 2023 Annual Report.","authors":"Adrienne Hughes, Alexandra Amaducci, Sharan L Campleman, Shao Li, Mari Costantini, Meghan B Spyres, Hannah Spungen, Jessica Kent, Alyssa Falise, Rachel Culbreth, Paul M Wax, Jeffery Brent, Kim Aldy","doi":"10.1007/s13181-024-01033-w","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s13181-024-01033-w","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Since 2010, the American College of Medical Toxicology (ACMT) Toxicology Investigators Consortium (ToxIC) has maintained the ToxIC Core Registry, a national case registry of in-hospital and clinic patient consultations submitted by medical toxicology physicians. Deidentified patient data entered into the registry includes patient demographics, reason for medical toxicology evaluation, exposure agents, clinical signs and symptoms, treatments and antidotes administered, and mortality. This fourteenth annual report provides data from 7392 patients entered into the Core Registry in 2023 by 36 participating sites comprising 61 distinct healthcare facilities, bringing the total case count to 102331 between 2010 and 2023. Ethanol was the most commonly reported exposure agent class (24.4%), followed by opioids (22.7%), non-opioid analgesics (16.7%), and antidepressants (11.7%). For the first time since the registry's initiation, in 2023, ethanol was the leading agent of exposure. There were 98 fatalities (case fatality rate of 1.3%). Additional descriptive analyses in this annual report were conducted to describe the reasons for medical toxicology consultation by age in 2023, and yearly trends for opioid and psychoactive exposures, physostigmine and rivastigmine treatments, and acetaminophen exposures treated with fomepizole.</p>","PeriodicalId":16429,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Medical Toxicology","volume":" ","pages":"350-380"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11436580/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142289439","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Intravenous Acetylcysteine: What Should Replace the Prescott \"Three-Bag\" Protocol?","authors":"Kim-Long R Nguyen, Michael E Mullins","doi":"10.1007/s13181-024-01017-w","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s13181-024-01017-w","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":16429,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Medical Toxicology","volume":" ","pages":"348-349"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11436566/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141620139","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Entering Medical Toxicology Fellowship from a Non-Traditional Residency Background.","authors":"Matthew Robert Dernbach","doi":"10.1007/s13181-024-01028-7","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s13181-024-01028-7","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":16429,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Medical Toxicology","volume":" ","pages":"344-347"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11436505/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141971307","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Anthony Spadaro, Andrew Sae Young Lee, Hilda Pineda, Bruce Ruck, Diane P Calello, Howard A Greller, Lewis S Nelson, Mehruba A Parris
{"title":"Attempted Self-Harm with Elemental Thallium Purchased Online: Case Report with Analytical Confirmation.","authors":"Anthony Spadaro, Andrew Sae Young Lee, Hilda Pineda, Bruce Ruck, Diane P Calello, Howard A Greller, Lewis S Nelson, Mehruba A Parris","doi":"10.1007/s13181-024-01034-9","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s13181-024-01034-9","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>Thallium is a highly toxic metal, with most publications demonstrating poisoning from thallium salts. We report on a patient with elevated serum and urine thallium concentrations from an intentional ingestion of elemental thallium purchased from the internet for self-harm.</p><p><strong>Case report: </strong>The regional poison center was contacted about an 18-year-old man who ingested a fragment from a 100-gram bar reported to be elemental thallium. Serial serum and urine thallium concentrations were obtained. Prussian blue was started on hospital day (HD) 2. A metal fragment was seen on abdominal x-ray and removed via colonoscopy on HD3. The ingested fragment was analyzed via inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and found to be 87.0% elemental thallium. The initial serum thallium concentration obtained on HD1 was 423.5 mcg/L (reference range < 5.1 mcg/L), which subsequently decreased to 4.5 mcg/L, 29 days after the ingestion. An initial random urine thallium concentration obtained on HD 3 was 1850.5 mcg/g creatinine (reference range < 0.4 mcg/g creatinine). The patient remained hospitalized for 23 days and, when seen in follow-up, had not developed any signs or symptoms of thallium toxicity.</p><p><strong>Discussion: </strong>Elemental thallium ingestion is a rare toxicologic exposure, with limited published clinical and analytical experience to guide management. This case report describes a patient with ingestion of elemental thallium who developed elevated serum and urine thallium concentrations and was treated with Prussian blue. Despite having elevated serum and urine thallium concentrations consistent with previous fatal exposures, more evidence is needed to understand the differences between elemental thallium and thallium salts.</p>","PeriodicalId":16429,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Medical Toxicology","volume":" ","pages":"416-421"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11436495/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142036054","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}