94 lines
4.8 KiB
Plaintext
94 lines
4.8 KiB
Plaintext
From: lippard@uavax0.ccit.arizona.edu (James J. Lippard)
|
|
Date: 19 Jan 92 20:05:00 GMT
|
|
Newsgroups: alt.drugs,talk.politics.drugs,misc.legal
|
|
Subject: Re: Drug Forfeiture: What It Is!
|
|
|
|
The latest issue of _Fortean Times_ (#60, Dec. 1991) lists five cases
|
|
of "DANGEROUS DRINKING" in which people were overcome by water intoxication.
|
|
The first of these cases is most relevant in this newsgroup:
|
|
|
|
A flight attendant from San Mateo County in California had to take
|
|
a urine test at her job in San Francisco International Airport.
|
|
She clammed up, or, as the doctors would say, she experienced a
|
|
condition known as paruresis, "an inability to void in a crowded or
|
|
noisy location" (apparently about 30% of men and 25% of women suffer
|
|
from this).
|
|
She was encouraged to drink as much water as she needed and guzzled
|
|
three litres in three hours. Still she couldn't pee. Hours later, the
|
|
40-year-old woman staggered into Peninsula Hospital in Burlingame,
|
|
her speech slurred, her thinking fuzzy, unable to perform simple
|
|
multiplication. At first it was thought she was having a stroke;
|
|
but a battery of tests revealed water intoxication as the cause. She was
|
|
placed in a quiet, dark room where she voided three litres. Her
|
|
brain functions returned to normal in 24 hours.
|
|
She was the first drug-test taker known to suffer from this,
|
|
according to Burlingame doctors David Klonoff and Andrew H. Jurow
|
|
reporting in the Journal of the American Medical Association (2 Jan
|
|
1991). There have been only seven other reported cases of healthy
|
|
people with the dangerous condition, which causes water-logged brain
|
|
cells and a dilution of body minerals. One person died. The
|
|
doctors suggested restricting drug-test takers to one litre of
|
|
water. San Jose Mercury News via Omaha World-Herald, 4 Jan 1991.
|
|
|
|
=============================================================================
|
|
|
|
Date: Tue, 11 Jan 1994 16:00:00 LCL
|
|
From: "TOWNSEND, RICHARD E." <TOWNSEND.PHARMACY@PHARMSMTP.BITNET>
|
|
Subject: water intoxication
|
|
Sender: Drug Abuse Education Information and Research <DRUGABUS@UMAB.BITNET>
|
|
Message-id: <01H7K2RRADC28WWBDH@YMIR.Claremont.Edu>
|
|
|
|
GENERAL INFORMATION REGARDING WATER INTOXICATION
|
|
|
|
--Richard Townsend--
|
|
|
|
Water intoxication is a state of altered neurological functioning
|
|
produced by a hypotonicity in the central nervous system. It
|
|
results from the excessive intake of water over a short time
|
|
period. The body is unable to remove water from the system as fast
|
|
as it is taken in. There are several symptoms related to water
|
|
intoxication syndrome (WIS). Water intoxication is manifested by
|
|
"restlessness, asthenia, polyuria, frequency of urination,
|
|
diarrhea, salivation, nausea, retching, vomiting, muscle tremor,
|
|
ataxia, convulsions, frothing, stupor, and coma" (1). WIS seems to
|
|
be age independent. WIS has been reported in people as young as
|
|
three months old and in those 50 and older. WIS appears to be
|
|
particularly prevalent in schizophrenic disorders (SD).
|
|
|
|
It has been found that people suffering from SD drink on the
|
|
average of roughly twice the amount of water as the average
|
|
population(1). The prevalence of high water intake in mental
|
|
facilities is 6.6%-17.5% higher than the norm. Over 70% of these
|
|
people suffer from SD. There seems to be a direct link between
|
|
water intake and an increase in the activity of the dopaminergic
|
|
system. Thus in these patients, drinking excessive amounts of
|
|
water would result in the reward of endogenous opioids being
|
|
released in the brain(2). It basically puts them on a high. There
|
|
has been a study by Tadashi Nishikawa that shows promising results
|
|
of reducing WIS by incorporation of the drug Naloxone(2).
|
|
|
|
WIS has also been found to be linked with alcoholism. During
|
|
periods of prolonged high blood alcohol levels, the body begins to
|
|
retain its water. Over time the body adapts this state semi-
|
|
permanently(3). Thus an alcoholic has a consistently low water
|
|
output. Patients who were characterized with "beer potomania" had
|
|
both a history of high chronic alcohol ingestion as well as signs,
|
|
symptoms, and lab results that are consistent with WIS(4).
|
|
|
|
REFERENCES
|
|
|
|
1. Vieweg WVR, David JJ, Rowe WT, et al. Death from self-induced
|
|
water intoxication among patients with schizophrenic
|
|
disorders. J Nerv Mental Disease 1985;173(3):161-5.
|
|
|
|
2. Nishikawa T, Tsuda A, Tanaka M, Nishikawa M, Koga I, Uchida Y.
|
|
Naloxone attenuates drinking behavior in a schizophrenic
|
|
patient displaying self-induced water intoxication. Clinical
|
|
Neuropharmacology 1992 Aug;15(4):310-4.
|
|
|
|
3. Ragland G. Electrolyte abnormalities in the alcoholic patient.
|
|
Emerg Med Clin North Am 1990;8(4):761-73.
|
|
|
|
4. Harrow AS. Beer potomania syndrome in an alcoholic. Va Med
|
|
1989;116(6):270-1.
|