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Letters |15 January 2002

Abuse of Epinephrine as a Stimulant

F. Lapostolle, MD; J.M. Agostinucci, MD; S.W. Borron, MD

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  • Hôpital Avicenne; 93009 Bobigny, France
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TO THE EDITOR:
New forms of drug abuse are regularly reported, but the use of catecholamines appears to be unusual (1). We report an attempt to obtain stimulant effects through intravenous epinephrine injection.
A 33-year-old man was discovered by a nurse in the bathroom of a small hospital. He was lying on the floor with an empty syringe nearby. He was conscious, with tremors and a Glasgow coma score of 14. His heart rate was 150 beats/min on the electrocardiographic monitor, but no pulse was detected. Twenty minutes later, on physician arrival, the patient was conscious, with an arterial blood pressure of 80/45 mm Hg, a heart rate of 70 beats/min, and a respiratory rate of 12 breaths/min. Findings on clinical examination and results of electrocardiography were normal. The patient explained that he had achieved a satisfactory psychostimulant effect the previous day by experimenting with an intravenous injection of 0.5 mg of epinephrine in association with oxazepam ingestion. On this second attempt, he had injected 1 mg of epinephrine. He had planned to inject dobutamine as well but could not because of tremors. He was admitted to the emergency department for observation, and his course was uneventful, resulting in discharge a few hours later.
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Lapostolle F, Agostinucci J, Borron S. Abuse of Epinephrine as a Stimulant. Ann Intern Med. ;136:174–175. doi: 10.7326/0003-4819-136-2-200201150-00021

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Published: Ann Intern Med. 2002;136(2):174-175.

DOI: 10.7326/0003-4819-136-2-200201150-00021

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2002 American College of Physicians
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