Hi all, I am currently an LPN student and we are having to do drug cards for about 100 drugs. We have to put the antidote (if there is one and we can't use charcoal) on the card. Anyone know of a good reference for this info? I have 2 drug books and they really dont give me what I need. Thanks for the help.

Dawn

Hi, Dawn!

Many drugs will not have an antidote. What you want to look for is overdose of a specific drug and see what the treatment for overdosage is. In many cases the treatment is going to be to just stop the medication. Sometimes, as in the case of morphine another drug, like narcan, can be given to immediately reverse the effects of the morphine. Antidotes, if there are any, will be very specific for a drug. So, what I would do on your cards is put down a treatment of overdosage, if you can find it. The best place to find overdosage information that I can think of off hand is a PDR. PDR information is reprinted on the www.drugs.com site under the professional information for some, but not all, drugs. You can also use http://www.drugstore.com/pharmacy/drugchecker/ to look up interactions of specific medications. Another place to look might be the MSDS sheets at a healthcare facility, particularly if one of your "drugs" is something like 70% isopropyl alcohol. The MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheets) have emergency treatment for poisoning and/or toxic exposure to any of the materials handled by healthcare workers in a facility listed on them and have to be kept in an easily accessible place for employees to consult. You can find free ones to link to and view here http://www.ilpi.com/msds/index.html