Increase abuse of Bath Salts

Specialties Addictions

Published

I am a Psych Nurse in WV and over the last 3 months, there has been an astronomical increase in the amount of admissions that we have gotten that have been abusing bath salts. Here is my experience with this drug: the patient takes this drug and it is like russian roullette. The patient becomes extremely paranoid leading to increased agitation and increased physical aggression. The increased aggression leads to the patient harming himself or others and then a committment is filed. Once the patient is medically cleared and brought to our facility, they are still on a "bath salt high". It takes approximately 24-48 hours for the patient to regain some sense of themselves. I have seen young people go thru memory loss and never regain their memories of what happened immediately after abusing these bath salts. This is a very sad epidemic we are facing!:confused:

What are some experiences that you have had with bath salts?

Google "krokodil" and let's hope we don't see that here anytime soon.

Unfortunately, even when they ban the chemicals in such products, the manufacturers can tweak the chemical composition ever so slightly, market it as "window cleaner" or "tire cleaner" and continue mass production legally. The packages also are labeled "not for human consumption" so the manufacturers can claim no responsibility. Buying these in a shop is a fairly complicated transaction.

I work for a substance abuse/behavioral health facility and meth and bath salts are the two most popular drugs right now.

Specializes in PICU, NICU, L&D, Public Health, Hospice.

Apparently the "bath salts" commonly cause enough paranoid and agitated (violent) behavior that they users are a known threat to those around them. More than one person has been injured by those under the influence.

I joked to my children (in their 20s) that perhaps this drug would lead to the zombie apocalypse...you know, get into a large water supply and cause the majority of the population involved to become mindless brain eating, human terrorizing, walking dead. They didn't think it was funny.

Specializes in Emergency, Occupational Health.

The ED I work at saw the bath salt spike around November of last year, and it seems to have slowed down a bit. We had multiple admissions to the ICU and many transfers to the local Psych hospitals because of it--- I have only seen people after they've injected it. It's not pretty-- they hallucinate and become very aggressive and (many times) uncooperative. Thank goodness for security. It's good that it's getting news coverage so people know how dangerous it is! Yikes.

Wow, I thought this bath salt issue is a new problem. Pretty crazy. I don't understand why people are trying it knowing what it does. Why would anyone want to try something that has caused people to attack and eat others? :/

Specializes in ER, M/S, transplant, tele.

We have actually had a few cases in our ED over the past couple of weeks (including last night) involving "bath salts"...same presentation, highly aggressive, paranoid if not unconscious. Last year around this time it was "spice", that has died down a little here so now the bath salts. ugh. Can't think of any specific treatment we use other than supportive care. This may have been around a while too but I know the teens here are soaking tampons in alcohol and inserting them as well. anything for a kick. grrr.

http://www.maine.gov/dhhs/osa/irc/pubs/DrugFactSheets/BathsaltsFactSheetOct2011.pdf

this is a good fact sheet explains about bath salts. I work in outpatient D&A, we have had a lot of people come through who were using bath salts, called "salts" by our clients. this is really bad stuff and very addictive. Clients I have talked to have had a difficult time staying away from the stuff.

Specializes in Clinical Research, Outpt Women's Health.

A drug researcher I work with told me that the guy who "ate the face off" the other guy had a negative toxicology for bath salts. Just really, really crazy I guess.

Specializes in Psych.

I work in Western MD on an Assertive Community Treatment Team. I have yet to see bath salts abuse by our clients but we do have a HUGE problem with spice. It tends to make our clients, esp the bipolars extremely agitated.

I thought for sure I would know what the drugs were that my kid would grow up and be faced with...now after this crap WHO KNOWS. Inserting tampons soaked in alcohol? Spice? Bath salts? Home school isn't looking that bad right now.

Specializes in Med/Surg, Behavioral Health.

I work in a small community hospital in Connecticut. Sure enough, we've had a few cases of patients taking bath salts. The initial presentation is paranoia, violent behavior, and pretty delusional/grandiose thinking. More often than not, we get young teens to early twenties. One of these patients made it up to our unit (psych/detox) after 24 hours. We were all extremely leery, and had our trigger fingers ready to call security - but the patient was "okay" ... he just wanted to lick the window panes made of rock candy. :lol2: And even his longing for CandyLand passed by the following day.

But, bath salts are quite a Russian Roulette ... you never know if you'll get pleasantly paranoid or extremely violent.

Bath Salts: The Drug That Never Lets Go (PBS Newshour)

"Taking bath salts, it seemed, was similar to taking amphetamine and cocaine at the same time. Except for one thing: MDPV is as much as 10 times stronger than cocaine."

Okay, can ANYONE tell me if they think this sounds like bath salts. Younger middle aged male admit Emergency Detention-medical clearance at hospital .Drug results negative except for opiates ..CT scan normal labs WNL for most part nothing critical .so he was at the ER being cleared for 12hours??? so when comes to psych unit..WAY WAY more psychotic than i have EVER seen before EVER! ..

severely psychotic and actively hallucinating-talking and laughing to self ..hypermotor agitation while sitting in chair rocking back and forth.or almost constant body movements. talking nonsensical..refused to get up and follow directions to do anything...not able to comprehend. Not oriented to person, place or time (could not even tell me his name). later calmed some and took a psych med ordered by mouth ..(little effect)...went in seclusion but open room ..did not sleep for more than 10minutes came out of room increased agitation and psychotic able to answer few questions very disoriented still . not able to say date of birth wihtout checking his armband from hospital ER and given a benzo PO (little effect) attempted to elope and jump over nursing station .police called and arrived. no decrease in agitation assisted staff with secure hold ..IM's given geodon and benadryl...did calm some but was kept in secluded room too...so does this sound like bath salts?? just wondering what else it could be??? ive seen my share of AVH patients but this seems like soo much more! I CANNOT imagine if this is bath salts dealing with these patients on a regular basis! especially without security and staffing

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