PCP Overdoses:

Research has revealed that some regular PCP users rarely appear in criminal justice or medical care statistics. These individuals often use PCP along with alcohol or marijuana at parties or otherwise value PCP's psychedelic properties without experiencing the undesirable reactions that often end in violent behavior, depression, and paranoia. Apparently, such users have managed the concept of dose control in order to maximize desired psychoactive effects and minimize undesired effects.

Because of the level of potency of any given dose, the effects of PCP are often unpredictable. Over-dosing is a possibility. The victim of such drug overdose is likely to experience muscular incoordination, oscillating movements of the eyeballs, inability to move from a fixed position, vomiting, skin flushing, noticeable perspiration, generalized anesthesia (loss of sensation), and psychotic episodes.

The PCP-induced psychosis, most likely to occur in individuals who have already suffered severe mental disorders, may be characterized by violence, aggression, extreme anxiety, and tension. The psychotic experience usually progresses through three stages, each lasting about five days. Stage one is often the most severe and is marked by delusions, anorexia, insomnia, and unpredictable assaultiveness. This is followed by an intermediate second stage with continued paranoia, restlessness, and intermittent control over one's behavior. In the third stage, the PCP user undergoes a gradual recovery, but social withdrawal and severe depression often persist for months.

Of course, PCP can display the harmful properties of a CNS depressant with cardiovascular instability, respiratory depression, seizures, and coma. To prevent death, emergency medical treatment will include life-support measures, isolation of the victim to reduce sensory stimulation, and detoxification by gastric lavage.

Surprisingly, the number of alcohol-PCP and heroin-PCP related deaths has been higher than expected, reflecting either a preference for taking these drugs in combination or some interaction in the effect of the drug combinations. Many of the reported deaths, however, were not the result of overdose or drug interaction but rather the direct result of some external event, such as homocides, accident, suicides, gunshot wounds, strangling, drowning, auto accidents, falls, and cuts.

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