Poison Control Calls

Methamphetamine, a stimulant, can increase alertness, attention, and energy through its effects on the reward system of the brain, and through its effects on the control of blood vessels, blood pressure and heart rate, blood sugar, and breathing.

Methamphetamine misuse, including overdose, can lead to serious psychological and physical health effects such as psychosis, confusion, panic states, paranoia, anger, aggression, restlessness, muscle pains, weakness, tremors, overactive reflexes, seizures, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, a dangerously high body temperature, rapid breathing, irregular heartbeat, heart attacks, and heart failure (NIDA).

Those who experience potential methamphetamine poisoning or other poisoning should seek help by calling the 24/7 National Poison Control Hotline or by visiting their website at poison.org. Both options provide free, expert, and confidential guidance in a poison emergency. Calls will be routed to the local Poison Center, and will be managed by a Poison Specialist (registered nurse or pharmacist) who will determine the severity of your case and provide recommendations.

Nationwide

In the United States, from 2012-2023, there were a total of 83,104 cases reported to Poison Control Centers that mentioned methamphetamine exposure (Figure 1). Methamphetamine was the only exposure mentioned in 38,929 (46.8%) cases with a single exposure reported, while the rest of the cases mentioned methamphetamine exposure along with exposure to at least one other substance (Figure 2).

From 2012-2021, the number of calls to the Poison Control Center mentioning methamphetamine exposure increased 137%, then decreased 22% by 2023. Calls mentioning methamphetamine as the single exposure increased 69% from 2012-2021, then decreased 25% by 2023 (Figures 1-2).

Los Angeles County

In Los Angeles County (LAC) methamphetamine has been the most common illicit drug exposure that callers to the Poison Control Centers called about for help since 2012, followed by marijuana, heroin, and cocaine (Figure 3).

In 2021, methamphetamine remained the most common illicit drug exposure reported, accounting for 6.3% of all drug-related calls (N=3,099) in LAC (NDEWS).

Figure 3. Percent of Poison Control System Reports for selected illicit drugs, LAC
Source: NDEWS

References

American Association of Poison control Centers National Poison Data System (NPDS). 2016-2023 Annual Report of the National Poison Data System©. https://www.poisoncenters.org/annual-reports.

National Drug Early Warning System (NDEWS). Los Angeles County Sentinel Community Site (SCS) Drug Use Patterns and Trends. 2015-2020.

National Drug Early Warning System (2022). National Drug Early Warning System Summary Report for 2021: Results from Sentinel Site Surveillance (NDEWS-2022-AR0001). Retrieved from https://ndews.org.

National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). 2019, May 16. Methamphetamine DrugFacts. Retrieved from https://nida.nih.gov/publications/drugfacts/methamphetamine on 2020, Jan 28