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Seizure-like episode from abusing cough syrup. possible excitotoxicity?

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gman7104

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Dec 8, 2009
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I used to be a heavy cough syrup abuser, drinking 2-3 bottles in one night more than once a week. The last time I did it, I woke up the next day feeling the usual rebound effects of cough syrup. That night, I smoked some garbage weed and all of a sudden, my vision became "purple static", i had extreme ringing in the ears, I fell on the floor and when I got back up, it happened again and again throughought the night. it happened one final time before that night was over, and this time I went completely deaf (I heard cracking in my ears and then nothing) my jaw did not respond and I remember smelling something weird.

At first I thought it was a seizure, but after doing research I feel it may have been excitotoxicity. However, one person suggested to me that it may have been a presyncope due to low blood pressure, which would be weird because my blood pressure is fine.

Can anyone shed light on my situation? What are the symptoms of excitotoxicity? Also, the ear ringing lasted a year after, and it was worsened everytime I smoked pot.
 
Discussions pertaining to drug-induced excitotoxicity belong in Advanced Drug Discussion or Other Drugs, but I'm gonna take a leap of faith and send this to ADD :)

Be well, gman7104, and stay safe <3

~ Vaya
 
Rule of thumb, you don't experience "neurotoxicity" with acute effects. Most likely a presyncope, marijuana use is well known to lower blood pressure, and when b.p. gets low your perceptions can be very freaky.
 
DXM doesn't cause excitotoxicity, that's caused by having TOO MUCH glutamate at the NMDA and AMPA receptors, if I recall correctly, DXM is an antagonist, not an agonist. It has been shown to produce olney's lesions in rats but never humans, and it can ruin your memory if you use it regularly for years (or daily for months), but you don't need to worry about it unless you do it that much. And the cognitive decline produced by it is similar to the kind produced by heavy MDMA abuse, suggesting serotonin is the culprit.
 
Usually marijuana is "safe" to use with DXM on 1st and 2nd plateau trips... However if you trip on a 3rd or 4th plateau and you smoke up you will likely experience severe dissociation.

from- Effects of NMDA receptor blockade and nitric oxide synthase inhibition on the acute and chronic actions of delta 9-tetrahydrocannabinol in rats.
 
I<3Neuroscience said:
Usually marijuana is "safe" to use with DXM on 1st and 2nd plateau trips... However if you trip on a 3rd or 4th plateau and you smoke up you will likely experience severe dissociation.

from- Effects of NMDA receptor blockade and nitric oxide synthase inhibition on the acute and chronic actions of delta 9-tetrahydrocannabinol in rats.
Click to expand...

Weed + 400mg makes me feel confused, too dissociated, and mentally retarded for the duration of the trip. I'll save my weed for another time, thanks
 
JackiesBabyy said:
DXM doesn't cause excitotoxicity, that's caused by having TOO MUCH glutamate at the NMDA and AMPA receptors, if I recall correctly, DXM is an antagonist, not an agonist. It has been shown to produce olney's lesions in rats but never humans, and it can ruin your memory if you use it regularly for years (or daily for months), but you don't need to worry about it unless you do it that much. And the cognitive decline produced by it is similar to the kind produced by heavy MDMA abuse, suggesting serotonin is the culprit.
Click to expand...

Well that's the thing, DXM blocks NMDA receptors so therefore, more glutamate is released as a rebound effect. The episode happened to me the day after using DXM, when I was experiencing the rebound effects
 
I would wager your BP was elevated the day after taking that much DXM and the other junk in cough syrup. When you smoked weed it dropped rapidly. Therefore you experience an unusually drastic change in BP and it threw you for a loop.

In my experience smoking weed on DXM makes the DXM way more intense and better experience.. but it's easy to cross the line and have a panic attack from this combo as well. Extremely rapid heart rate, pounding chest, and "the fear". Very easy for some people. Be careful with this combo, please. It might make you lie in your bed with "911" entered into the phone for a couple hours.
 
It looks like too much cough syrup. If you were drinking 2-3 bottles - that is way too much. Did the cough syrup contain acetaminophen too? If so, your liver is in jeapordy.
 
Were you on any medications (particularly SSRIs) that may have interacted? As kookiekaren also mentioned, an overdose of acetaminophen/paracetamol is harmful to the liver, which may be worth looking into further.
 
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