Injectable weight-loss drugs increasing calls to state poison center

Yahoo

20-03-2025

The Oklahoma Poison Center is reporting a 'surge' of incoming calls about accidental overdosing of popular injectable drugs used for weight loss and diabetes management.
Called GLP-1 agonists and used in such drugs as Ozempic, the products are used to help lower blood sugar levels and promote weight loss. They are used once a week and are administered by injecting into fatty tissue.
According to the Poison Center, the organization has received 241 calls related to GLP-1 agonists, with 189 (78%) of these being due to 'unintentional therapeutic errors.' The center said that users often 'realize too late that they've injected the wrong amount.'
'These are very safe drugs, so we're not talking about death or really severe symptoms, but to patient sometimes it can seem severe,' said Kristie Edelen, managing director at the Oklahoma Poison Center. 'They can have pretty significant stomach upset, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea. These are only dosed once weekly, so they have a really really long half-life. It may be day two, three or four that the patient is calling us and they want to know 'When are these symptoms going to stop?' Really it does take about a week, sometimes up to two weeks for those symptoms to stop.'
While those symptoms aren't life-threatening by themselves, a week-long bout of them can lead to dehydration, and require rehydrating with intravenous fluids in serious cases, Edelen said.
Edelen said the calls to the center started going up when a shortage occurred and the Food and Drug Administration allowed compounding pharmacies to mix up their own versions and provide them to patients in vials, to be injected with a syringe. The manufactured versions are provided with pens that have preset doses, so overdosing is less likely.
'The public really needs to recognize that we as healthcare providers, pharmacists, medical providers and physicians, should be educating patients if we are either prescribing or making and dispensing these medications, and making sure that patients know how they are properly administered,' Edelen said.
One problem is the type of syringe being used can cause a patient to misunderstand the dose they are administering to themselves.
'Insulin syringes are dosed in units, whereas other syringes are dosed typically in milliliters, and they are not one in the same,' Edelen said.
Edelen said the following guidelines can help prevent an accidental overdose:
Know Your Dose: Always confirm your prescribed dose with your provider or pharmacy. Compounded versions may differ from FDA-approved formulations.
Understand Your Syringe: An insulin syringe, measured in units, is different from a standard syringe, measured in milliliter. Using the wrong syringe can lead to serious overdoses or underdoses.
Be Shown How to Measure Your Dose: If you're unsure, ask a healthcare provider or pharmacist to demonstrate. GLP-1 pens may be dosed differently than syringes.
Double Check Before Injecting: If the amount looks different than expected, stop and ask before proceeding. If you are in doubt, don't inject—call for help.
Those with questions can call The Oklahoma Poison Center at 1-800-222-1222 to get answers about GLP-1 agonists and any other medication concerns.