Increase abuse of Bath Salts

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Specializes in Psychiatry.

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?

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Specializes in psych, addictions, hospice, education.

I have been out of the loop awhile. Bath salts like we use in our bath water? Please tell me what these bath salts are and what people do with them.

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Specializes in Psychiatry.

OK, this is what it has been reported that patients are doing with the bath salts. They are saying that it can be smoked or snorted. I have also had one patient tell me that it can be cooked down and injected. I am assuming that these are regular bath salts that you can buy for your bath water! I am not sure if it is packaged differently or what. I do know that this is very dangerous stuff and it effects everybody differently so it is like playing Russian Roullette with your life.

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Specializes in Professional Development Specialist.

I had to look it up it sounded so bizarre. Apparently it's not just regular bath salt. It's some sort of chemical drugs that they label as bath salt. Scary!

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=12738043

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Left drug and ETOH detox about 8 months ago. I worked in upstate in NY. Never heard of this before. New info to me.

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Gawd! People will inject themselves with anything, I swear. Never heard of bath salts though.

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i had to look it up it sounded so bizarre. apparently it's not just regular bath salt. it's some sort of chemical drugs that they label as bath salt. scary!

http://abcnews.go.com/us/wirestory?id=12738043

i am always a little weary when i see articles like this in the news because i think it gives people (kids, mainly) ideas. it's cheap, it's basically legal and very easy to get. yes, a news story like this is informative, but i also think it can be hazardous by helping to make this drug become more popular amoung young people.

i think this about a lot of things... there have even been a few episodes of dr. phil on the dangers of this or that and parents beware, that have made me go; 'why are you showing this... do you know how many kids are going to go out and try this now???' :eek:

maybe it's just me...

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I'm a police officer (and not a new one) with a particular interest in drugs, and I'm also a nursing student. I just learned of this the other day in our psych nursing class. A fellow student that commutes from out of state to come to our program was telling us about it. It must not have made it to my area yet. Anyway, I just think it's interesting that there's already a thread about it on here.

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Specializes in Emergency Room.

I am in ED orientation ((love the ED)).

Anyways, I had my first expirence with a patient with bath salt high today. The pt came in unresponsive and went through fits of unconciousness and severe aggitation and had to be restrained for safety.

I never heard of the substance being abused before. Apparently its pretty bad in my area according to my preceptor. According to her prior experiences - most pt's have a 'bad' high. If they remain concious they are very aggitated, paranoid, and aggressive (not a good combo). She said in our ED we receive several per week.

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"Bath salts" are not the same chemicals that we add to the tub for a relaxing soak; they are experimental drugs that are legal because they have yet to be officially controlled and are used experimentally to explore the potential of the human brain.

Just Google "bath salts" and all will become clear...

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Specializes in PACU, OR.

I don't normally venture into the addictions forum - it's hardly my specialty, but the heading caught my eye, obviously arousing my curiosity. Googling Cathinone I came up with Khat, which is filtering into South Africa in the form of leaves, which are chewed to produce the "high".

http://www.google.co.za/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=5&sqi=2&ved=0CEgQFjAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmg.co.za%2Farticle%2F2007-05-18-keeping-cool-as-a-khat&rct=j&q=khat&ei=z2zzTbOdOJGGvgOUwPXNBg&usg=AFQjCNFE80kC-XXEVJlh17dncs-d0cb77Q&sig2=ZuSLG5CXrt0tA8DjV7G6UA&cad=rja

I'd be very interested to know where the "bath salts" are being manufactured, and whether any kind of licensing or approval was obtained before they hit the market.

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Haven't heard of abusing bath salts.

Check out "jenkum" makes bath salts seem a much cleaner buzz!:lol2:

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