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American Morning

Cold Medicine Abuse

Aired December 30, 2003 - 09:45   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Across the country, schools and hospitals are reporting a dangerous trend, teenagers using over the counter cold medicines to get high. Dozens of kids in the past two years have OD'd. Five have died as a result.
Dr. Drew Pinsky, an addiction specialist at Las Encinas Hospital in Pasadena, live with us today in L.A.

Doctor, good to have you back here, and good morning.

Characterize this for us. How big of a problem is it? How widespread?

DR. DREW PINSKY, ADDICTION SPECIALIST: It's a common problem. It's been around for a few years, and it tends to occur in clusters. Some of the Midwesterner and New England people -- New England healthcare providers are seeing clusters of this with an increase in emergency room visits with kids having what they're calling overdoses.

And basically what this is, kids who take large doses of over the counter cold medicine, with something called dectramethoraphan (ph). They call it DXM. Coriseden (ph) Robitussin DM, these are packed full of this chemical. And when take large doses of it, they have these sort of dissociative experiences. These kids then come to the emergency room in sort of delirious states.

HEMMER: What's the desired effect they're going for? what's the high?

PINSKY: They're going for a high that's basically -- it's called a dissociative high. It's very similar to PCP or kedemin (ph), and there is a also a certain amount of opioid activity in this drug, so it's sort of -- I consider it sort of methadone meets PCP. It's a pretty substantial high that kids get.

HEMMER: What are symptoms. I mean, if you're a parent out there, what do you look for?

PINSKY: Well, sometimes you can't see anything. It may just be a mild euphoria or sedation, all the way to coma, seizures and death. They're different plateaus that kids calls this to the kinds of highs they get for the drug, and the initial plateaus may be very difficult to detect, but if a kid has an altered sensorium (ph), if they really are sort of disconnected from reality, certainly DXM is a possibility.

HEMMER: I read some of your comments I thought were quite interesting. I want to draw out two if I could. You say this is not necessarily a new fad, is that right?

PINSKY: It's not a new fad. The fact that it's become available in pills really in the last couple years has added to some of the momentum behind this, but kids have been what they call robo-tripping for a long time, which is drinking cough syrup. And even now, though this has emerged in the press, it's not something that we're really see on a national level; we're seeing little local outbursts of it, which we've been seeing for a long time. And also this is not really -- although they're probably is potential for addiction to this drug, I've never seen addiction to it. Again, because it activates the opioid system, you would imagine that there is addictive potential, but I think it sort of kicks the tar out of these kids so much, that they have sort of a post-high depression that it makes it a very hard drug to use regularly.

HEMMER: The other thing that you said I thought was quite interesting, by the time the media catches on a story like this, teenagers are past it, they're on to a new thing.

PINSKY: Yes, Bill, when it comes to any teenage behavior, by the time we all know all about it, they're on to something else. So this another example of that. But beware that something people need to know about this drug, that is not simply just about the acute intoxicating effects; it is potentially brain damaging, as are most hallucinogens. The kinds of long-term consequences we see from this drug are very similar to speed, LSD, ecstasy, and that is mood disturbances, panic and anxiety, and memory problems, word-finding difficulty, this sort of thing.

HEMMER: Thanks for making us aware. appreciate it.

PINSKY: My pleasure.

HEMMER: Drew Pinsky in L.A. Good to talk to you again.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired December 30, 2003 - 09:45   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Across the country, schools and hospitals are reporting a dangerous trend, teenagers using over the counter cold medicines to get high. Dozens of kids in the past two years have OD'd. Five have died as a result.
Dr. Drew Pinsky, an addiction specialist at Las Encinas Hospital in Pasadena, live with us today in L.A.

Doctor, good to have you back here, and good morning.

Characterize this for us. How big of a problem is it? How widespread?

DR. DREW PINSKY, ADDICTION SPECIALIST: It's a common problem. It's been around for a few years, and it tends to occur in clusters. Some of the Midwesterner and New England people -- New England healthcare providers are seeing clusters of this with an increase in emergency room visits with kids having what they're calling overdoses.

And basically what this is, kids who take large doses of over the counter cold medicine, with something called dectramethoraphan (ph). They call it DXM. Coriseden (ph) Robitussin DM, these are packed full of this chemical. And when take large doses of it, they have these sort of dissociative experiences. These kids then come to the emergency room in sort of delirious states.

HEMMER: What's the desired effect they're going for? what's the high?

PINSKY: They're going for a high that's basically -- it's called a dissociative high. It's very similar to PCP or kedemin (ph), and there is a also a certain amount of opioid activity in this drug, so it's sort of -- I consider it sort of methadone meets PCP. It's a pretty substantial high that kids get.

HEMMER: What are symptoms. I mean, if you're a parent out there, what do you look for?

PINSKY: Well, sometimes you can't see anything. It may just be a mild euphoria or sedation, all the way to coma, seizures and death. They're different plateaus that kids calls this to the kinds of highs they get for the drug, and the initial plateaus may be very difficult to detect, but if a kid has an altered sensorium (ph), if they really are sort of disconnected from reality, certainly DXM is a possibility.

HEMMER: I read some of your comments I thought were quite interesting. I want to draw out two if I could. You say this is not necessarily a new fad, is that right?

PINSKY: It's not a new fad. The fact that it's become available in pills really in the last couple years has added to some of the momentum behind this, but kids have been what they call robo-tripping for a long time, which is drinking cough syrup. And even now, though this has emerged in the press, it's not something that we're really see on a national level; we're seeing little local outbursts of it, which we've been seeing for a long time. And also this is not really -- although they're probably is potential for addiction to this drug, I've never seen addiction to it. Again, because it activates the opioid system, you would imagine that there is addictive potential, but I think it sort of kicks the tar out of these kids so much, that they have sort of a post-high depression that it makes it a very hard drug to use regularly.

HEMMER: The other thing that you said I thought was quite interesting, by the time the media catches on a story like this, teenagers are past it, they're on to a new thing.

PINSKY: Yes, Bill, when it comes to any teenage behavior, by the time we all know all about it, they're on to something else. So this another example of that. But beware that something people need to know about this drug, that is not simply just about the acute intoxicating effects; it is potentially brain damaging, as are most hallucinogens. The kinds of long-term consequences we see from this drug are very similar to speed, LSD, ecstasy, and that is mood disturbances, panic and anxiety, and memory problems, word-finding difficulty, this sort of thing.

HEMMER: Thanks for making us aware. appreciate it.

PINSKY: My pleasure.

HEMMER: Drew Pinsky in L.A. Good to talk to you again.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com