What are the long-term effects of regular drug injection?
May 21, 2006 4:56 AM Subscribe
Ignoring the the drug itself, what are the long-term effects of regular drug injection?
Specifically, what are the long-term effects of regularly injecting a drug prepared from a tablet or capsule, which has been dissolved and cooked in sterile water, filtered through cotton, and injected properly with a sterile needle.
Specifically, what are the long-term effects of regularly injecting a drug prepared from a tablet or capsule, which has been dissolved and cooked in sterile water, filtered through cotton, and injected properly with a sterile needle.
If you're injecting in veins, you will eventally wear them out. Recently met a man in the hospital who's sixty kinds of chronically sick, and they had to call in an ultrasound tech to find a vein so they could place an IV. Their next step is installing a permanent access, because they can't just inject medication or hook up an IV into him anymore. His veins are scarred and worn out.
If you're injecting into fat or muscle, you can cause abcesses if you continully inject into the same spot. My diabetic family members make it a habit to stick one side one day, then the other side the next, varying the location each time, to prevent just that. I imagine you can also get a build-up of scar tissue this way, since you are piercing the skin, but I can't say for sure.
posted by headspace at 6:38 AM on May 21, 2006
If you're injecting into fat or muscle, you can cause abcesses if you continully inject into the same spot. My diabetic family members make it a habit to stick one side one day, then the other side the next, varying the location each time, to prevent just that. I imagine you can also get a build-up of scar tissue this way, since you are piercing the skin, but I can't say for sure.
posted by headspace at 6:38 AM on May 21, 2006
Is this intravenous injection? Because repetitive intravenous injections, particularly when done at the hands of an amateur, can ultimately lead to damage and (if, say, you hit a valve) collapse.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 6:46 AM on May 21, 2006
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 6:46 AM on May 21, 2006
Here's a pretty good list of the health issues related to heroin use, the most common issues are typically abscesses (which almost every IV user gets at one time or another) and cotton fever, which is serious and scary.
You say "injected properly," and if injected properly, not much should happen. As previously noted, diabetics do it every day, though from what I know they typically go IM, not IV. Regular IV use - especially if centered in the same locations as self-injection typically requires (the off-arm and hand and both feet) - can lead to a host of problems, including vein and artery damage and nerve damage.
posted by ChasFile at 8:39 AM on May 21, 2006
You say "injected properly," and if injected properly, not much should happen. As previously noted, diabetics do it every day, though from what I know they typically go IM, not IV. Regular IV use - especially if centered in the same locations as self-injection typically requires (the off-arm and hand and both feet) - can lead to a host of problems, including vein and artery damage and nerve damage.
posted by ChasFile at 8:39 AM on May 21, 2006
Assuming it's intravenous, the Harm Reduction Coalition offers info and links you might find relevant. If it's intramuscular/subcutaneous, there are short brochures from the OSU Medical Center here.
posted by mediareport at 8:39 AM on May 21, 2006
posted by mediareport at 8:39 AM on May 21, 2006
IM/SubQ: Abscesses, possibly also: IV: cellulitis (skin infections that move quickly), sepsis (bacteria growing in your blood that causes shock and multi-organ failure), endocarditis (bacteria travel through your blood and eat away at your heart valves), osteomyelitis (bacteria in your bones), septic joints--these are just the most life-threatening of infections, there are plenty of others.
If the capsules/tabs have been diluted, I've also seen a man with such a weird/strange lung disease that he got a lung biopsy and spent 2 weeks in the ICU; at the end of it all, the only thing we could find was talc particles in his lungs from his drug use 20+ years ago.
Most of this I've seen with heroin use, and unless you're using a fresh sterile needle each time and are using sterile technique, you're bound to get an infection. (With illicit drugs, people are generally less concerned with sanitation, their apperance, hygiene, so I'd argue that these drugs have much higher risks than say, insulin injections.) You also didn't mention using an alcohol swab to clean the skin.
posted by gramcracker at 9:11 AM on May 21, 2006
If the capsules/tabs have been diluted, I've also seen a man with such a weird/strange lung disease that he got a lung biopsy and spent 2 weeks in the ICU; at the end of it all, the only thing we could find was talc particles in his lungs from his drug use 20+ years ago.
Most of this I've seen with heroin use, and unless you're using a fresh sterile needle each time and are using sterile technique, you're bound to get an infection. (With illicit drugs, people are generally less concerned with sanitation, their apperance, hygiene, so I'd argue that these drugs have much higher risks than say, insulin injections.) You also didn't mention using an alcohol swab to clean the skin.
posted by gramcracker at 9:11 AM on May 21, 2006
Scar tissues, abcesses from IM/SubQ injections. IV injections--scars from injected and wasted veins. Took care of a patient recently where all of her veins were black looking. She was a chronic IV drug user. We couldn't get an IV started and had to put a femoral line in just to do a quick surgical procedure. I've never heard of cotton filtering, and cotton isn't sterile, (unless you purchase it that way).
You don't say what the drug is, or if it is legal. I'm thinking it isn't since it's not being used in the correct form. It's a bad idea.
posted by 6:1 at 9:36 AM on May 21, 2006
You don't say what the drug is, or if it is legal. I'm thinking it isn't since it's not being used in the correct form. It's a bad idea.
posted by 6:1 at 9:36 AM on May 21, 2006
Well, as someone said, diabetics do it all the time.
here is an article on purifying heroin, which would certainly reduce the risks of injecting Heroin (Not that I know if the article is accurate or not, I don't). Even if impure heroin were "sterilized" it could still have all sorts of harmful additives (broken glass!?)
posted by delmoi at 1:20 PM on May 21, 2006
here is an article on purifying heroin, which would certainly reduce the risks of injecting Heroin (Not that I know if the article is accurate or not, I don't). Even if impure heroin were "sterilized" it could still have all sorts of harmful additives (broken glass!?)
posted by delmoi at 1:20 PM on May 21, 2006
Diabetics don't do IV injections all the time. Also, they aren't taking medicine intended for oral usage and injecting it. They also are not "purifying it" because what they have and are doing with it is safe. When you alter a medication and how it is to be used you are playing with fire.
posted by 6:1 at 5:16 PM on May 21, 2006
posted by 6:1 at 5:16 PM on May 21, 2006
Diabetics do subcutaneous injection (also called SQ, or subQ) Just barely under the skin. This is the only kind of injection that can be done by the patient safely at home.
An IM (intramuscular) injection is one level deeper. Those painful achy shots you get in the upper arm or butt muscle are IM. The drug disperses slowly out of the muscle so it's a good way to deliver something you want released slowly.
An IV (intravenous) injection is another level deeper, into the vein.
Do not underestimate how potentially dangerous IM and IV injections are! Nurses who do these are using very clean needles, fresh out of the package, and know the right technique to unwrap it and use it while keeping it sterile. The drug in the syringe has been prepared in a very clean pharmacy.
In pharmacy school we took a class about how to prepare these things. The level of government regulation is unreal. Drugs that are going in a syringe are prepared in a cleanroom. There are various levels of cleanroom - the cleanrooms that electronics are made in are usually class 5 I think - and that's not clean enough for preparing drugs, usually.
Anyway, sorry to ramble. But that class fundamentally changed how I look at the world. There are particles and microbes freaking EVERYWHERE. Your skin is an amazing protective barrier. An injection breeches that barrier. An IV injection is going all the way down thru the skin, fat, muscle, into your bloodstream.
An injection in a hospital or doc's office? Sure! At home, by someone who's not a pro? Hell, no.
posted by selfmedicating at 6:43 PM on May 21, 2006
An IM (intramuscular) injection is one level deeper. Those painful achy shots you get in the upper arm or butt muscle are IM. The drug disperses slowly out of the muscle so it's a good way to deliver something you want released slowly.
An IV (intravenous) injection is another level deeper, into the vein.
Do not underestimate how potentially dangerous IM and IV injections are! Nurses who do these are using very clean needles, fresh out of the package, and know the right technique to unwrap it and use it while keeping it sterile. The drug in the syringe has been prepared in a very clean pharmacy.
In pharmacy school we took a class about how to prepare these things. The level of government regulation is unreal. Drugs that are going in a syringe are prepared in a cleanroom. There are various levels of cleanroom - the cleanrooms that electronics are made in are usually class 5 I think - and that's not clean enough for preparing drugs, usually.
Anyway, sorry to ramble. But that class fundamentally changed how I look at the world. There are particles and microbes freaking EVERYWHERE. Your skin is an amazing protective barrier. An injection breeches that barrier. An IV injection is going all the way down thru the skin, fat, muscle, into your bloodstream.
An injection in a hospital or doc's office? Sure! At home, by someone who's not a pro? Hell, no.
posted by selfmedicating at 6:43 PM on May 21, 2006
"Do not underestimate how potentially dangerous IM and IV injections are!"
Really? I have been giving myself an IM injection every two weeks for years now and neither my current nor previous physician has had any problem with this. As a matter of fact, they encouraged me to learn how to do it myself so I could be more independent. After hundreds of injections, I have never had any complications.
I think that if you have been taught proper technique and you purchase your needles and syringes from a reputable store, there really shouldn't be a problem.
I can't speak to IV use, though. Never done that myself. :)
posted by cayla at 7:44 PM on May 21, 2006
Really? I have been giving myself an IM injection every two weeks for years now and neither my current nor previous physician has had any problem with this. As a matter of fact, they encouraged me to learn how to do it myself so I could be more independent. After hundreds of injections, I have never had any complications.
I think that if you have been taught proper technique and you purchase your needles and syringes from a reputable store, there really shouldn't be a problem.
I can't speak to IV use, though. Never done that myself. :)
posted by cayla at 7:44 PM on May 21, 2006
cayla, re-read the question. The poster is injecting intravenously a medication NOT meant for IV injection. One should never mess with the route of a medication, it's one of the 5 Rs we are taught. Messing with the make up of a medication (adding water, filtering, etc.) is always a bad idea.
posted by 6:1 at 7:49 PM on May 21, 2006
posted by 6:1 at 7:49 PM on May 21, 2006
6:1, per the quote I had at the top of my response, I was responding to one of the other comments, not the original question.
I just didn't think that selfmedicating's response was 100% accurate. I believe, from personal experience and my physcian's approval of what I do, that it does not need to be dangerous to give your self *IM* medicine via an IM injection.
I totally agree that taking medicine in a form not intended could have grave consequences.
posted by cayla at 7:59 PM on May 21, 2006
I just didn't think that selfmedicating's response was 100% accurate. I believe, from personal experience and my physcian's approval of what I do, that it does not need to be dangerous to give your self *IM* medicine via an IM injection.
I totally agree that taking medicine in a form not intended could have grave consequences.
posted by cayla at 7:59 PM on May 21, 2006
Collapse of veins, infection at the site, infections distant from the site, and particulate embolus to the lungs are serious complications. If you are among the 30% or so of people whose cardiac septum is perforate, you risk particulate embolus to the brain and heart as well.
Sterile technique is an attempt, not a certainty. Even trained nurses surgeons occasionally mess up and introduce contamination during this type of procedure, resulting in infection.
Some of the especially unhealthy things relating to the described practice involve the cooking and injection of things meant to be swallowed, not cooked and injected. Who knows what sort of compounds are forming when the tablet is 'cooked?' Also, many pills contain talc or other non-soluble things, which will end up in the lungs and form small granulomas (sites of chronic inflammation).
Also, you are injecting cotton every time you do this. These small insoluble fibres usually land in your lungs too.
Let's see if we can be clear about it: the practice described is not remotely compatible with health. To the contrary, it is always quite harmful.
posted by ikkyu2 at 11:34 PM on May 21, 2006
Sterile technique is an attempt, not a certainty. Even trained nurses surgeons occasionally mess up and introduce contamination during this type of procedure, resulting in infection.
Some of the especially unhealthy things relating to the described practice involve the cooking and injection of things meant to be swallowed, not cooked and injected. Who knows what sort of compounds are forming when the tablet is 'cooked?' Also, many pills contain talc or other non-soluble things, which will end up in the lungs and form small granulomas (sites of chronic inflammation).
Also, you are injecting cotton every time you do this. These small insoluble fibres usually land in your lungs too.
Let's see if we can be clear about it: the practice described is not remotely compatible with health. To the contrary, it is always quite harmful.
posted by ikkyu2 at 11:34 PM on May 21, 2006
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Ken McE at 5:41 AM on May 21, 2006