Discussion A small question about overdose

[Mindisbrokennekorbsi]

A lot of people view overdose as a relatively easy and painless way to off themselves, but why does it have such a low success rate? (I think it's somewhere below 5 percent.)

 

[mathieu]

Because most drugs are not very lethal in overdose.

 

[GoodPersonEffed]

If you use the site search with the term OD, there's tons of threads and comments that answer this.

The short answer is that most medications are designed so that they will not be fatal. It used to be that barbiturates were widely prescribed but could be fatal, and they were replaced by benzodiazepines that are not, unless mixed with alcohol and other medications. Most antidepressants aren't fatal except for Wellbutrin, which is not reliable for ctb. Medications usually have to be mixed in certain combinations to be fatal, hence the four-drug cocktail in the PPH, and none of them are easy to obtain, usually someone will only have a prescription for one or two, if that. Chloroquine is fatal but painful, so a high dose of diazepam is recommended to knock someone out before the medicine takes effect. Propanolol can be fatal at 8g or higher but is not guaranteed, and my understanding is it's more likely to be fatal when combined with a calcium channel blocker.

 

[Tintypographer]

@Suez can comment more but basically drugs and medication have a specific purpose whether that is pain relief, neurological effects, metabolic or other physiologic functions. As you increase the concentration of the molecule in your digestive system that causes an effect, the neurological system creates nausea which then causes vomiting of the drug before a specific critical organ is damaged.

Many drugs are also not at all designed to be lethal. The molecules cause clinical effects through many interactions and it is rare if ever that the ultimate goal is rapid cessation of breathing or heartbeat. Those two functions are the specific ones to target for a fast death in a human.

It is possible for side effects to induce cardiac arrest with overdose and those cares are certainly reported but in many cases your organs do everything they can against the overdose to fight and help you survive.

Most molecules have a lethal dose 50 (LD50) which tells you the range necessary for death of 50% of a population if the drug is administered. In most drugs that lethality (how much it takes to kill the test population of rodents) means that a lot of the drug must be administered to cause death.


The basic answer is that OTC, prescription and even recreational drugs are not poisonous enough to reliably kill a person.

I restate, overdose is not a reliable method of catching the bus and I recommend against it.

 

[Mindisbrokennekorbsi]

@Suez can comment more but basically drugs and medication have a specific purpose whether that is pain relief, neurological effects, metabolic or other physiologic functions. As you increase the concentration of the molecule in your digestive system that causes an effect, the neurological system creates nausea which then causes vomiting of the drug before a specific critical organ is damaged.

Many drugs are also not at all designed to be lethal. The molecules cause clinical effects through many interactions and it is rare if ever that the ultimate goal is rapid cessation of breathing or heartbeat. Those two functions are the specific ones to target for a fast death in a human.

It is possible for side effects to induce cardiac arrest with overdose and those cares are certainly reported but in many cases your organs do everything they can against the overdose to fight and help you survive.

Most molecules have a lethal dose 50 (LD50) which tells you the range necessary for death of 50% of a population if the drug is administered. In most drugs that lethality (how much it takes to kill the test population of rodents) means that a lot of the drug must be administered to cause death.


The basic answer is that OTC, prescription and even recreational drugs are not poisonous enough to reliably kill a person.

I restate, overdose is not a reliable method of catching the bus and I recommend against it.

What would be a method easy to obtain/achieve, that was as painless as possible?

 

[autumnal]

What would be a method easy to obtain/achieve, that was as painless as possible?

https://sanctioned-suicide.net/attachments/autumnal-rtfm-resources-only-extended-information-png.34278/

 

[Suez]

@Suez can comment more but basically drugs and medication have a specific purpose whether that is pain relief, neurological effects, metabolic or other physiologic functions. As you increase the concentration of the molecule in your digestive system that causes an effect, the neurological system creates nausea which then causes vomiting of the drug before a specific critical organ is damaged.

Many drugs are also not at all designed to be lethal. The molecules cause clinical effects through many interactions and it is rare if ever that the ultimate goal is rapid cessation of breathing or heartbeat. Those two functions are the specific ones to target for a fast death in a human.

It is possible for side effects to induce cardiac arrest with overdose and those cares are certainly reported but in many cases your organs do everything they can against the overdose to fight and help you survive.

Most molecules have a lethal dose 50 (LD50) which tells you the range necessary for death of 50% of a population if the drug is administered. In most drugs that lethality (how much it takes to kill the test population of rodents) means that a lot of the drug must be administered to cause death.


The basic answer is that OTC, prescription and even recreational drugs are not poisonous enough to reliably kill a person.

I restate, overdose is not a reliable method of catching the bus and I recommend against it.

Very well said

 

[Mindisbrokennekorbsi]

I would like to clarify, just to avoid any misunderstandings, I'm not considering Overdosing as a method of suicide. It's just a question, born from curiosity.

 

[OblivionSeeker]

If you use the site search with the term OD, there's tons of threads and comments that answer this.

The short answer is that most medications are designed so that they will not be fatal. It used to be that barbiturates were widely prescribed but could be fatal, and they were replaced by benzodiazepines that are not, unless mixed with alcohol and other medications. Most antidepressants aren't fatal except for Wellbutrin, which is not reliable for ctb. Medications usually have to be mixed in certain combinations to be fatal, hence the four-drug cocktail in the PPH, and none of them are easy to obtain, usually someone will only have a prescription for one or two, if that. Chloroquine is fatal but painful, so a high dose of diazepam is recommended to knock someone out before the medicine takes effect. Propanolol can be fatal at 8g or higher but is not guaranteed, and my understanding is it's more likely to be fatal when combined with a calcium channel blocker.

I've seen online that 1 gram Propranolol ctb

 

[GoodPersonEffed]

I've seen online that 1 gram Propranolol ctb

Yes, and you can find online that a nurse died from 1g of SN.