Effects
Dextromethorphan, when consumed in low "recreational doses" (between 100 & 200 mg), is described as having a euphoric effect. With middle doses (about 400 mg, or 2.5 to 7.5 mg/kg), intense euphoria, vivid imagination, and closed-eye hallucinations may occur. With high doses (600 mg, or 7.5 mg/kg and over), profound alterations in consciousness have been noted, and users often report out-of-body experiences or temporary psychosis. Flanging (speeding up or slowing down) of sensory input is also a characteristic effect of recreational use.
There is also a marked difference between dextromethorphan hydrobromide, contained in most cough suppressant preparations, and dextromethorphan polistirex, contained in the brand name preparation Delsym. Polistirex is polymer that is bonded to the dextromethorphan that requires more time for the stomach to digest it as it requires that an ion exchange reaction take place prior to its dissolution into the blood. Because of this, dextromethorphan polistirex takes considerably longer to absorb, resulting in more gradual and longer lasting effects reminiscent of time release pills. As a cough suppressant, the polistirex version lasts up to 12 hours. This duration also holds true when used recreationally.
In 1981, a paper by Gosselin estimated that the lethal dose is between 50 and 500 mg/kg. Doses as high as 15–20 mg/kg are taken by some recreational users. It is suggested by a single case study that the antidote to dextromethorphan overdose is naloxone, administered intravenously.
In addition to producing PCP-like mental effects, high doses may cause a false-positive result for PCP and opiates in some drug tests.
Read more about this topic: Recreational Use Of Dextromethorphan
Famous quotes containing the word effects:
“The machines that are first invented to perform any particular movement are always the most complex, and succeeding artists generally discover that, with fewer wheels, with fewer principles of motion, than had originally been employed, the same effects may be more easily produced. The first systems, in the same manner, are always the most complex.”
—Adam Smith (1723–1790)
“Like the effects of industrial pollution ... the AIDS crisis is evidence of a world in which nothing important is regional, local, limited; in which everything that can circulate does, and every problem is, or is destined to become, worldwide.”
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)
“If I had any doubts at all about the justice of my dislike for Shakespeare, that doubt vanished completely. What a crude, immoral, vulgar, and senseless work Hamlet is. The whole thing is based on pagan vengeance; the only aim is to gather together as many effects as possible; there is no rhyme or reason about it.”
—Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910)