Latest news with #poisoncontrol
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Man who asked ChatGPT about cutting out salt from his diet was hospitalized with hallucinations
A 60-year-old man spent three weeks being treated at a hospital after replacing table salt with sodium bromide following consultation with the popular artificial intelligence bot ChatGPT. Three physicians published a report on the case in the Annals of Internal Medicine earlier this month. According to the report, the man had no prior psychiatric history when he arrived at the hospital "expressing concern that his neighbor was poisoning him." The man shared that he had been distilling his own water at home, and the report noted he seemed "paranoid" about water he was offered. Bromism, or high levels of bromide, was considered after a lab report and consultation with poison control, the report said. "In the first 24 hours of admission, he expressed increasing paranoia and auditory and visual hallucinations, which, after attempting to escape, resulted in an involuntary psychiatric hold for grave disability," the case report said. Once his condition improved, the man shared that he had taken it upon himself to conduct a "personal experiment" to eliminate table salt from his diet after reading about its negative health effects. The report said he did this after consulting with the chatbot ChatGPT. He self-reported that the replacement went on for three months. The three physicians, all from the University of Washington, noted in the report that they did not have access to the patient's conversation logs with ChatGPT. However, they asked ChatGPT 3.5 what chloride could be replaced with on their own. According to the report, the response they received included bromide. "Though the reply stated that context matters, it did not provide a specific health warning, nor did it inquire about why we wanted to know, as we presume a medical professional would do," the report said. A representative for OpenAI, the company that created ChatGPT, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The company noted in a statement to Fox News that its terms of service state that the bot is not to be used in the treatment of any health condition. "We have safety teams working on reducing risks and have trained our AI systems to encourage people to seek professional guidance," the statement said. Bromide toxicity was a more common toxic syndrome in the early 1900s, the report said, as it was present in a number of over-the-counter medications and sedatives. It was believed to contribute to 8% of psychiatric admissions at the time, according to the report. Bromide salt, an inorganic compound, is now typically only used in veterinary medicine as an anti-epileptic medication for cats and dogs, according to the National Library of Medicine. It's a rare syndrome, but cases have re-emerged recently "as bromide-containing substances have become more readily available with widespread use of the internet," the report said. This article was originally published on Solve the daily Crossword
New York Times
10-08-2025
- Health
- New York Times
Cannabis Poisonings Are Rising, Mostly Among Kids
Amy Enochs was texting with other parents, all wondering why their central Ohio elementary school had gone into lockdown, when the school called. Several fourth graders, including Ms. Enochs's daughter, had eaten marijuana gummies and were being taken to the hospital with racing pulses, nausea and hallucinations. A classmate had found the gummies at home and mistaken them for Easter candy. Ms. Enochs recalled hyperventilating that spring day three years ago. 'I was scared to death,' she said, her voice breaking. 'It was shock and panic.' As legalization and commercialization of cannabis have spread across the United States, making marijuana edibles more readily available, the number of cannabis-related incidents reported to poison control centers has sharply increased: from about 930 cases in 2009 to more than 22,000 last year, data from America's Poison Centers shows. Of those, more than 13,000 caused documented negative effects and were classified by the organization as nonlethal poisonings. These numbers are almost certainly an undercount, public health officials say, because hospitals are not required to report such cases. More than 75 percent of the poisonings last year involved children or teenagers. 'I definitely have seen floridly psychotic 2-year-olds just waiting for the marijuana to leave their system because they got into someone's gummies,' said Dr. Shamieka Virella Dixon, a pediatrician at Atrium Health Levine Children's Hospital in Charlotte, N.C. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
The Independent
15-06-2025
- Health
- The Independent
The unapproved drug being sold at US gas stations and convenience stores
Health officials are raising concerns about the increasing popularity and potential dangers of tianeptine, an unapproved drug found in brightly colored little bottles sold as energy shots or cognitive supplements at gas stations and convenience stores. Tianeptine, while used as an antidepressant in some countries, is not FDA -approved in the U.S. and is illegally added to supplements, often marketed under names like Zaza and Tianaa. U.S. poison control centers have reported a steady increase in calls related to tianeptine, with symptoms including distress, rapid heartbeat, and seizures, often requiring intensive care. The FDA has issued warnings about tianeptine, as it can bind to the same brain receptors as opioids, leading to potential risks such as dangerously depressed breathing, and is sometimes used to self-treat opioid withdrawal. While tianeptine is not federally controlled, several states have banned or restricted it; data from Alabama shows that restricting tianeptine led to a decrease in related emergency calls.
