Method Determining the lethality of an overdose

[Spiny Lobster]

Overdosing on antidepressants has a generally low success rate. What factors come into play when determining the effectiveness of an overdose?

• What if the cocktail contains several different types of mood disorder medication? (bipolar, depression, sleeping meds/seroquel, what have you)
  • Can certain SSRIs/combination of possibly be as potent as your typical tricyclics?
• How does body type and gender come into play?
  • For example, are females more likely to succumb to large doses, does weight of the individual matter, etc.
• Would eating be better or worse for the intended outcome?
  • Eating may nullify some of the effects of the medication, but at the same time, not eating at all would probably cause the body to instantly reject the medication (through vomiting), right?
• What other things should one consider?

Thanks for any and all input.

 

[Aap]

The answer in general is "no." In general, as pharmacology and organic medicinal chemistry have evolved, as have testing and risk acceptability, drugs are designed to be more specific for receptor targets, and drugs that are non-lethal in dosages well above therapeutic levels are advanced. This ratio is called he therapeutic index. This is not to say drugs with unintended side effects don't make it to market (Celebrex is a good example) but it is to say that when this is discovered, there isn't nearly the same tolerance that existed 30 or 40 years ago.

Tylenol is an example of a drug that would NEVER be allowed to come to market today. 20 years ago 4g was the max recommended daily divided dosage. A single days worth can cause liver damage. While otc, such a low therapeutic index would be laughed out of the room, and even a phase 1 study would be scrapped.

the medicines you listed have largely replaced the tricyclics because of safety (as well as the general need to keep creating new meds every decade due to the patent system). I'll also add, this topic is discussed weekly, if not daily. You might refer to the search for specific Medications, but the answers won't change.

 

[autumnal]

Overdosing on antidepressants has a generally low success rate. What factors come into play when determining the effectiveness of an overdose?

• What if the cocktail contains several different types of mood disorder medication? (bipolar, depression, sleeping meds/seroquel, what have you)
  • Can certain SSRIs/combination of possibly be as potent as your typical tricyclics?
• How does body type and gender come into play?
  • For example, are females more likely to succumb to large doses, does weight of the individual matter, etc.
• Would eating be better or worse for the intended outcome?
  • Eating may nullify some of the effects of the medication, but at the same time, not eating at all would probably cause the body to instantly reject the medication (through vomiting), right?
• What other things should one consider?

Thanks for any and all input.

As @Aap mentions, overdoses on psychiatric medications are very rarely fatal.

All of the factors you are asking about would make such miniscule differences at the already highly unlikely end of the fatality spectrum.

It's kind of like asking which is more likely to kill you if it fell on you from ceiling height: a table tennis ball or a squash ball. The squash ball is probably technically more likely, but realistically both are so lightweight that neither is very likely to be fatal at all.

 

[Spiny Lobster]

That's a shame! Thanks to you both for letting me know. It'd be awful for me to attempt only to live through it. I'll have to find a more potent method.