Mephedrone and Erythromycin

[John Lewis]

A few years ago I took mephedrone a few time mixed with erythromycin, not realising how utterly stupid and deadly this combo was. By the way erythromycin is an antibiotic, I was on it for acne at the time.

I had a bad reaction the 5th time I mixed the drugs, which caused me to search in here to find out how bad it was that I had mixed them.

Fast&bulbous gave me this answer:

"Well it means it all turns into 4-methylephedrine (not a good thing) as cyp3A4 (the enzyme responsible for N-demethylation) is inhibited by erythromycin"

I'm worrying again about this now as my anxiety disorder possibly got worse after this incident and recently it has got worse again. I am thinking it could be getting worse again as the effects if damage caused then from this incident are slowly taking their toll.

Does anyone know the true ramifications of having all the mephedrone convert to 4-methylephedrine? I'm guessing pretty horrendous and there would be a lot of brain and heart damage?

John

 

[StoneHappyMonday]

Erythromycin is a really shit drug. far far worse for you than mephedrone. Or it was for me. being allergic to penicillin, it's been the go-to antibiotic for me for years. Until about three years ago when taking erythromycin, on it's own, put me into hospital with what they cutely described as an intolerant reaction. I'll spare you the details.

Anyway, I think you are panicking here because of your anxiety disorder (vicious cycle) NOT because of this drug combo. I am 100% certain I have taken the two together and probably more than once. Apologies in advance if I'm wrong, but I doubt the 'deadly' tag you are putting on it.

 

[knock]

I believe JL is worried about the cardiotoxicity speculation, not blaming 4-methylephedrine for anxiety per se. F&B said that this metabolite (and precursor) of mephedrone is implicated in the alleged "heart valve growth problem" of mephedrone.

I'm not sure if there has been any scientific update on this speculation. Unless there has, it remains speculation. Unfortunately there is nothing I can say to prove the speculation false. If you're worried about your heart it won't hurt to see a doctor and get a check-up. However I imagine that a handful of exposures to 4-methylephedrine puts you in the low risk category.

I hope it is false. I guess there are many people who've exposed themselves to more 4-methylephedrine than you, JL. That would depend on the purity of their mephedrone and the amount normally metabolised to 4-methylephedrine; but the purity is certainly highly variable so I think my guess is good.

 

[John Lewis]

Actually I am worried it has affected my anxiety disorder. I just don't know how awful it is that all the meph was converted 4-methylephedrine. I'm guessing really really bad, and that it might have wiped out a high percentage of my serotonin pathways.
Naturally I am worried it has destroyed my heart too, although I have no symptoms of that... yet.

 

[knock]

JL, I did a bit of digging the other night and I didn't read anything to suggest 4-methylephedrine has any noteworthy effect on neural function.

Has anyone given you a reason to think it would have such an effect? F'n'B certainly does not mention such a thing in his posts on BL. His only concern is the heart stuff.


What I'm saying is, if the only reason you have to link it to your increased anxiety is the increased anxiety itself, then it's probably not related. You aren't the only person that's been exposed to 4-methylephedrine, I think it's likely anyone who uses meph has been exposed to it, that includes me. And we're not seeing legions of chronically anxious meph users. If they existed you can guarantee some of them would come here, and you'd find some of them amongst our regulars. I've not seen any, and I'm certain I would have noticed.

 

[0llusion]

I'd be interested in anything anyone has to share on this. While I was tweaking hard all the time on meph I developed some big nasty sores on my hand that required antibiotics. I was so close, within a whisper of checking if erthromycin interacted badly with meph and for whatever reason never checked. I completed most of a month course of it getting increasingly whacked out and ended it with what I'm guessing was chronic fatigue, sleeping for up to 24 hours to 3 days at a time for quite some time afterwards.

Couldn't comment on whether all my 5 day binges finally caught up with me or the erthromycin played a part.

 

[John Lewis]

Thanks for the replies.

I do feel slightly more reassured now

I'm wondering if it is actually just MDMA and other drugs that have created my derealisation then