How Many Pills Does It Take to Overdose?
Death associated with drug overdose continues to increase year after year. It is crucial that patients be educated about the correct dosage of drugs to be taken in order to event this from happening [1].
What is Drug Overdose?
A drug overdose is where an individual ingests an amount of drug beyond its therapeutic level. Every drug has their own therapeutic range and it is within this level that their intended effect occurs.
Anything beyond this level is known as the toxic range and taking this amount of drug may lead to adverse effects or even death. An overdose may either be accidental or intended.
In an accidental overdose, a person unknowingly takes a drug in its toxic level. This type is common in children who may ingest the drugs that they found in medicine bottles lying around the house.
On the other hand, a person is aware of the drug that he is taking in an intended drug overdose. This type is more common is recreational drug users who continuously take in more drugs due to the drug tolerance that their body is developing [1].
How Many Pills Does It Take to Overdose?
The number of pills it would take to overdose a person differs from one drug to another. Below is a list of some of the most common prescription drug that people overdose on and the number of pills it would take to reach the toxic level.
Remember that these are the figures are for an average individual. People who are hypersensitive to these drugs may overdose at a lower dose while dose who have developed a tolerance may be able to stand higher doses of these medications.
- Methadone- Methadone is an opioid medication that is prescribed to patient for their pain. This drug is also used in assisting patients in heroin withdrawal. The toxic dose of methadone is set at 200 mg and it would take 40 tablets of 5mg strength pills or 20 tablets of the 10mg strength [2, 3].
- Zolpidem – Zolpidem, more commonly known as Ambien, is a sedative which is prescribed to patients who are suffering from insomnia. This drug will affect the chemical levels in the brain and help patients to fall asleep faster. The toxic level for Zolpidem is set at 400-600mg. This level in the body will lead to serious adverse effects. The toxic level is reached by taking 80-120 pieces of 5mg strength pills or 40-60 10mg strength pills [4, 5].
- Morphine – Morphine is another pain medication which is prescribed to patients in order to manage moderate to severe levels of pain. This medication is preferably used for round the clock treatment and not as an as-needed medication. The lethal dose for morphine was set at 200mg. Taking 40 tablets of 5mg strength morphine or 20 pieces of 10mg morphine pills will reach the toxic level [6, 7].
- Oxycodone– Oxycodone is another pain medication. It is also given to patients who are experiencing moderate or severe pain. Patients who are given this medication is placed under closed monitoring because of the habit-forming nature of this medication.
The toxic level of the individual depends on the exposure of the individual to the medication. Someone who just started taking oxycodone may overdose on taking 80 mg or 3 tablets of 30mg strength oxycodone. Those who are taking this drug for a longer period of time may be able to tolerate higher levels of this medication [8, 9].
What to do to a Person that has Overdosed?
A person who is suspected of being overdosed must be brought to the hospital right away. The prognosis of an overdose depends on the amount of drugs that were taken and how soon medical attention has been given. The sooner that they are helped, the better are their chances of surviving [1].
Overdosing on pills is a real problem and it can be fatal. If you have more information about drug overdose, you can share it in the comment section below.
References
- Goldberg, J. (2016, April 23). Drug Overdose. Retrieved from WebMD: http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/addiction/drug-overdose?page=5
- com. (2016, March 30). Methadone. Retrieved from Drugs.com: https://www.drugs.com/methadone.html
- Addiction Blog. (2014, August 15). Methadone overdose: How much amount of methadone to OD? Retrieved from Addiction Blog: http://prescription-drug.addictionblog.org/methadone-overdose-how-much-amount-of-methadone-to-od/
- com. (2016, February 1). Ambien. Retrieved from Drugs.com: https://www.drugs.com/ambien.html
- Addiction Blog. (2012, April 12). Ambien overdose: How much amount of Ambien to OD? Retrieved from Addiction Blog: http://prescription-drug.addictionblog.org/ambien-overdose-how-much-amount-of-ambien-to-od/
- com. (2016, June 24). Morphine. Retrieved from Drugs.com: https://www.drugs.com/morphine.html
- Addiction Blog. (2014, August 9). Morphine overdose: How much amount of morphine to OD? Retrieved from Addiction Blog: http://drug.addictionblog.org/morphine-overdose-how-much-amount-of-morphine-to-od/
- com. (2016, May 20). Oxycodone. Retrieved from Drugs.com: https://www.drugs.com/oxycodone.html
- Addiction Blog. (2012, March 28). Oxycodone overdose: How much amount of oxycodone to OD? Retrieved from Addiction Blog: http://prescription-drug.addictionblog.org/oxycodone-overdose-how-much-amount-of-oxycodone-to-od/
Similar Posts:
- Methadone Overdose
- Oxycodone Overdose
- Morphine Overdose – Amount, Symptoms, Treatment
- Zolpidem Overdose
- Ammonia Toxicity
- Crack Overdose
- Ambien Overdose
- Diazepam Overdose
- Oxycontin Overdose
- Barbiturate Overdose
Is OD on 9125mg of diphenhydramine and 3150mg of trazodone going to kill me
Looks like you might be planning to do something you’d regret. Just know that people care about you , you are a good person and it will get better. I promise
If people care…they call…months go by….nobody really gives a shit…im definetly gonna take my life…
Don’t do it….please…
Are you still alive?
I’m a 14 year old girl and I just took 22 tablets hopping to die because of bullying
Don’t do it.
No one cares I would be better off dead. Tired of life
Everyone is selfish only care about themselves. I want to be with my mother in heaven.
i was just Dx with ALS- i do not know how long i have so just looking at all possibilities
I have mental health issues and my family don’t understand and have fallen out with me. My son, daughter and my ex husbands family don’t want to know me. They gossip about me and I don’t see my grandchildren from my daughter. She hasn’t spoken to me in over 2 years and hates me, so does her husband. My ex’s new wife calls me everything and the whole lot of them call me mental. I have no one as I live alone and go to bed at night hoping I don’t wake up. I can’t take anymore and don’t want to be here at all, I’ve totally had enough and would be better off dead. I know it will have no effect on them if I died, in fact they would be happy I was no longer around.
Don’t do it it gets better I promise!! Sending love
I really feel being alone. I hate it. Im tired of being alive and the pain that comes with it.
Please hang on. Pray for someone else and thank God for one thing today. I know it hurts to feel the way you describe and it feels like it will never get better, but it can. Pray for hope!!
I wanna make the sadness go away but unfortunately I was diagnosed with depression and it’s really hard to not attempt to. I’ve been to the hospital 3 months in a row and I just want to end the suffering I have no regrets and I wish you all a goodbye. This will be the end of me.
I’d rather die alone no one cares about me anymore
When I was 10 or 11 months old I received a good slap right in the middle of my face. When I was 2 years old a slap to the side of my right knee, dislocated. When I was 4 several fractured ribs, 8 nearly chocked to death. My mother told me once what she said to the doctor when I was born.”throw her in the garbage I don’t want her”. Yes there are people who have memories from that early in their lives. ”no one cares about me anymore” how old are you? I have 2 sons, 8 grandchildren and a few great-grandchildren I have never met (the great-grand that is). Guess what I did last Christmas. Sat at home in front of the TV and watched re-runs. No phone calls, no flowers, no gifts, no visits. I’m ready to call it quits now and I have the means and a perfect way to do it successfully. I have spent the last few months trying to find one good reason not to do it. Haven’t found one yet.
Because there so many people that need you because you so much more of a person that you realize—which i know it difficult to believe when you are depressed.
I came very close to your way of feeling and thinking . I finally decided to do a bit of volunteer work, which fairly quickly moved to volunteer shifts 4 times a week. I know feel that I have something to offer and that I am of value.
I made a list of the kinds of thinks that I could do as well as contacting the volunteer Bureau.
Do you have interests in animals ,older adults,people with disability,driving people to appointments,?
You can’t change your past but you can change your present and therefore your future.
So it time to stop dwelling on your past and decide what kind of person you want to be —T
Take Charge and take Action
becuz Uu never know what life has in store for Uu. I know how Uu feel even tho Uu might be older than me(im14)but please dont do it. You’ll just past ur pain on to others. Im pretty sure Uu dont want ur family to be sad and hurt. What if ur grandchilden or children become depressed and kill themselves. I know you would not want that. Life is precious im telling you. Even if Uu feel lonely ur not becuz many ppl understand i know i do. Even though we dont know each other I do care(i have a very soft spot for things like this) im begging you to please not kill yourself.
Everyone is worth living, even though you might not feel like you are just know that your family cares and just remember that god gave you a life to enjoy so …..you do you ??????
Plz don’t kill ur self. Go to a therapist. I know u probably don’t as I don’t but I am still seeing someone and they are helping me. Plz don’t do it. Plz plz. I don’t care if u feel has tho no one loves u but plz try help. Plz
You…you can’t..!
i AM LONELY, BROKE AND SO VERY DISINTERESTED IN WAKING UP EACH DAY AND IT GETS WORSE EACH DAY
So am i, i just want to die
I have been thrown away by 2 husbands & now I am 45 & have to live with my parents…my mother is very controlling & very vain so I don’t feel I belong anywhere! All I truly have is my precious dog of 11 years & now we are gonna be homeless living in my grandmothers car she left me when she passed away! I’m just so tired & I just want to give up really I do!
I know how u feel I feel like that now I just got marry in sept of last year and my husband been cheating on me he say he not but I know I been emotional, mental and physical abuse since I been marry to him. I’m just 30 with 5 kids who don’t listen to me. Stress out my mind don’t know what to do but leave this world. I been abuse by all the mens I had dated and by my father to
pls don’t your dog loves u just remember that u have him/her to get through it with u pls ddont die ur dog wont have anything or anyone and will be helpless ur dog needs u no one else but you
Can you OD by taking 20 Phentamine 37.5 mg. 750 mg in total?
I’m going to take 30 7.5 mg zopiclone in a few days. I’ve had enough os this shitty life. I don’t want to wake up to the same shit every day. Goodby cruel world !!!
30 7.5 mg of zopiclone should be enough to kill me. so I’m going to do it today
Ofr I go to get my zopiclone. Goodbye cruel world !!!
No! Please see a therapist there is a lot of beuty in life its worth the shit to get there!
I’m right there too , if u havnt done it yet,
What would happen by taking Ramapril x60, Simvastatin x60, Bisoprolol x60, Aspirin x60, Fluoxetine x80????
Idk what to do anymore my family doesnt care no one cares. Dont even have friends.???? idk what to do
Kill yourself duh
DONT KILL UR SELF thts just sill now isn’t it !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dit it work was thinking to rake the same
Idk what to do anymore my family doesnt care about no one does not even my so call friends care bout me im alone what do i do ????
Please no don’t do that I know the way u fell my brother picks on me my whole life I never wanted to be here in this life and I want to do it right now but my mom is here and she’s the only thing that is keepin me alive and I’m 14 I live in idaho and it’s a horrible life there’s laughs here and there but then there my brother making my mom cry me cry my sister enough for us to call the police I wanted to KILL my brother but I can’t cause he’s a good brother but makes my mom cry literally my mom and it makes me mad to kill him but no that’s wrong there’s 3 side the nice one the mean one the quiet one just get them out of your life if there like that to u and enjoy it don’t let them hold u back it’s u u can do whatever the fuck u want to find someone and try not to get into trouble cause that sound horrible and so does your story I wanna spend time with u but idk who u are so and u probably live 100 to 1000 miles away from me
my mental state is really bad. I had self harmed by cutting but then I needed to find other ways to cope. I feel like if I just overdose, I would make my death much easier. My family and social life is pretty shit. I’ve lost many important people in my life and it has gotten to the point where I cannot take it anymore. This life isn’t worth living. I have given up. This is the only way out.
I don’t know what to do. I looked this up to day as a last resort but I’m too scared to do anything. I have anxiety and really bad anxiety last year I joined a theater group and I felt so happy like I finally belonged, I got one year there and the I had to move to Ohio with my family it’s already February and I still have made no good friends, I was just in a school play with people who seem nice but no one seemed interested in me, maybe that’s just my anxiety but I don’t know how to fix that. I have no one to talk too I can’t go to my parents or sister because they won’t understand I just had a huge argument with my mom because of the friend thing, she told me I wasn’t trying and I was just making excuses she just left house and to lad I owe her a written apology and a list of consequences for the next time I disrespect her, she said she feels like she’s in a abusive relationship with me. After that my younger sister Called me selfish for wanting to use the laptop. My older sister is my only and I feel like she’s starting to hate me she’s calls me selfish a lot too, maybe I am. I don’t know how to explain my problems to them it’s something only I can understand, how hard it is to talk to people and things that are easy for them are impossible for me to have the guts to do. I feel trapped, when I go to school I feel lonely but when I go home I feel lonlier I don’t know what to do anymore. I can’t tell my friends in Florida because I don’t know how I would do that, besides I’m probably being overdramatize I don’t want it to seem like I’m complaining because I know I have it better than most but I just need to get this out of my system. My friends in Florida talk less to me everyday day, and if I loose them I don’t know what I’ll do. Nobody has to answer this or even read but i needed to get this all out of me.
Sorry for taking up your time.
I am 15 years old and I want to die. I have been suicidal ever since I was 14 years old. My dad kicked me out of the house because he did believe a girl can love another girl. I have been praying life will get better. But everytime it feels like I am moving forward I end up the same place as always, crying thinking about killing myself. I have hurt my mom plenty of times because my dad and her always argue. I have caused so much pain towards my family. I feel so alone and I think its best if i just end my life for good. And today that day, I am going to overdose later tonight. It easier to hide behind a screen then telling people how i feel. I have tried talking about it but people take it as a joke. I mean who would believe the “friendly girl who plays volleyball that looks happy” would try to commit suicide.
tbh I wish I had these so I could die in peace
I think i am pregnant and im only 17 years old with a man i dont love i dont even like him i just want to die
I want to die. That’s all.
nobody cares, its been like this for three years. so whats the point in living if im torturing myself and everyone else, fuck it
for all the people saying suicide isn’t the answer im only on here because I just swallowed like 6 pills and I just thought I didn’t want to die so im just hoping I dont im a idiot mainly because im taken and in love with him but there are rumours hes cheating help me
I just made a bad choice of getting sent to alternative school. And now my dad seems as if he wants nothing to do with me…im turning 16 in a month and I know itll just be a regular day and no one will care. My friends aren’t really noticing me I just don’t want my mom to be sad, I love her so much. I don’t know what to do, I just want to die honestly I have ruin my life already. Im only 15 and the first time I had sex I caught herpes. I have the worst luck in the world. I tried killing myself once, by taking about 15 ibprofine and I was not successful at all. I think I may try again with my mothers prescription pills this time.
I am a 61 year old man. I have a wife and 3 kids and 3 grandkids. I have had a hard life nothing ever goes right for me. I am done. just filled script of methadone 10mg. going to take my self out.
thank you i will use this to overdose myself
I have had 2 serious methadone overdoses. The first I was found relatively early. They gave me naloxone IV. I can’t tell you how awful that was.
A brief history; I was involved in a serious car crash just over a year ago. It killed my partner who was driving and left me hospitilised for the best part of a year. I was given methadone for the pain but I had a stoma for a bit and the pills just went straight through me.
I’ve now been put back together (it’s not pretty but it’s not bad). I have only 1.5 metres of small intestine left which isn’t a lot of fun.
To say I felt lonely and lost is an understatement, hence the first attempt. I must have forgotten how bad it was coming back as just a week ago I took in the region of 300+mg methadone at about 1am. I never told anyone and went to bed. My memory of the event isn’t great apart from what I’ve pieced together. I think it was the following day around 12pm that I was found. I was very very close to death. An hour later and I think it would have been my last breath.
I have had 2 serious methadone overdoses. The first I was found relatively early. They gave me naloxone IV. I can’t tell you how awful that was.
A brief history; I was involved in a serious car crash just over a year ago. It killed my partner who was driving and left me hospitilised for the best part of a year. I was given methadone for the pain but I had a stoma for a bit and the pills just went straight through me.
I’ve now been put back together (it’s not pretty but it’s not bad). I have only 1.5 metres of small intestine left which isn’t a lot of fun.
To say I felt lonely and lost is an understatement, hence the first attempt. I must have forgotten how bad it was coming back as just a week ago I took in the region of 300+mg methadone at about 1am. I never told anyone and went to bed. My memory of the event isn’t great apart from what I’ve pieced together. I think it was the following day around 12pm that I was found. I was very very close to death. An hour later and I think it would have been my last breath.
Again I was given Naloxone, again it was awful. The next 4 days I was on a drip as my kidneys and liver were failing. At this point I just wanted to stay alive. My full intention was to go but I’m really glad the doctors did such a good job at keeping me alive.
It’s strange, I see things differently now. I’ve a vigour I never had. I think I was too close to death.
Don’t do it. There’s nothing fun about it. I won’t say I don’t still think about it but I want to have a go at making the best I can with what I have. I’ve seen how many people care for me and realised how gutted they’d be were I not to be here.
I have had 2 serious methadone overdoses. The first I was found relatively early. They gave me naloxone IV. I can’t tell you how awful that was.
A brief history; I was involved in a serious car crash just over a year ago. It killed my partner who was driving and left me hospitilised for the best part of a year. I was given methadone for the pain but I had a stoma for a bit and the pills just went straight through me.
I’ve now been put back together (it’s not pretty but it’s not bad). I have only 1.5 metres of small intestine left which isn’t a lot of fun.
To say I felt lonely and lost is an understatement, hence the first attempt. I must have forgotten how bad it was coming back as just a week ago I took in the region of 300+mg methadone at about 1am. I never told anyone and went to bed. My memory of the event isn’t great apart from what I’ve pieced together. I think it was the following day around 12pm that I was found. I was very very close to death. An hour later and I think it would have been my last breath.
Again I was given Naloxone, again it was awful. The next 4 days I was on a drip as my kidneys and liver were failing. At this point I just wanted to stay alive. My full intention was to go but I’m really glad the doctors did such a good job at keeping me alive.
It’s strange, I see things differently now. I’ve a vigour I never had. I think I was too close to death.
Don’t do it. There’s nothing fun about it. I won’t say I don’t still think about it but I want to have a go at making the best I can with what I have. I’ve seen how many people care for me and realised how gutted they’d be were I not to be here.
Both OD’s I’d taken more than enough to put me down. I was just found before it happened (no one could have known, it was just luck i was found).
Please please think twice before taking too much methadone. There’s no going back and I can assure you it’s a very hard death.
So I took two midol and an ibuprofen and in a midol. That was about 1,350 mg and Im scared.. I dont know if I overdosed or not… Could someone please tell me. I want to die and want to know if I overdosed because my friend stopped me before I could do more.
im 13 and i want to know if 64 pills can kill me..pls tell me if they can..
if i dont die tonight then tomorrow im going to be crying on the floor feeling like a disappointment bcs i can not be what my mom wants me to be. i dont know how to stay focused and so i dont get any work done. i may have a learning disability but i dont know.if i take 64 pills will it kill me? pls tell me i dont want to live
I’m a 15 year old girl who has been depressed since she was 12. I have tried to kill my self so many times already. I’ve been molested by 3 older men through out the years. I ended up moving away from everyone to try and start over but it’s failed. Everyone tells me to kill my self even my family. I have no friends so I’m all alone. My boyfriend who I thought was gonna be with me forever broke up with me after a 3 year relationship that we had. Now I’m listening to music, writing this as I say my finally goodbyes to everyone. I’m sorry to everyone who feels the need to commit suicide. I hope that to the other people that are on there way to end there life that you find your happiness soon. Anyway, I thought that maybe if I tell some random people that I don’t even know about this since no one else seems to listen to me anyway. I hope you guys have a good rest your day and take care.