For many, the taste of cough syrup is less than desirable, even in the midst of flu season. Some young people, however, have acquired more than just a taste for it in recent years. In fact, over-the-counter drugs such as cough syrup and cold medications have become the drugs of choice in many homes of today’s youth.
“If someone is looking to get high, he or she will look in their home first,” said Sue Kell, education director at the Blue Ridge Poison Center.
Furthermore, Kell mentioned, cough syrup is “cheap, legal, accessible, and parents don’t suspect it.”
This act of taking more than the suggested dose of cough syrup in search of a “high” feeling has become known as “robotripping.” The term “robo” derives from the name of a well-known (and often abused) cough medicine, Robitussin, while “tripping” is the desired “high” that occurs as a result of abusing this over-the-counter drug.
Rick Heisterman, University Counseling and Psychological Services substance use clinician, said young people fail to consider the behavioral, physiological and emotional long-term effects of substance abuse as they reach for a bottle of cough syrup in hopes of an “out-of-body” experience.
What causes this experience? According to the Blue Ridge Poison Center, most of these medicines include Dextromethorphan, otherwise known as DXM, derived from opium.
Heisterman explained that Robitussin is a central nervous system depressant, large doses of which can cause hallucinatory experiences.
“These drugs can have lethal effects,” Heisterman said. “Too much can stop the abuser’s respiratory system and heart.” Even if not lethal, Heisterman noted, the substances “can cause an extreme loss of control and judgment.”
Aside from possible unintentional injuries that can result from DXM inebriation, Kell and toxicology fellow Nathan Charlton of the Blue Ridge Poison Center mentioned the health risks associated with combining DXM with alcohol and other drugs, especially those containing acetaminophen. Heisterman defined this effect as a “synergistic effect” in which the drugs become more powerful when mixed together, resulting in a more intense experience and dangerously amplified effects.
Heisterman said short-term use of DXM causes a person to feel less inhibited; however, long term use affects one’s behavior, emotions, brain and body. DXM can cause psychological stress, ruin relationships and have destructive effects on one’s organs and brain.
Heisterman described what can happen to one’s brain as a result of DXM abuse: High levels of DXM use can cause damage to neural transmitters in the brain. As a person grows older, he loses neural transmitters. The more damage one does to neural transmitters during his youth, the more neural transmitters will die off in old age. In general, the impact drugs have on the brain and body carries over into later life.
The American Academy of Family Physicians reported that cough medicines have become more common drugs of abuse since the 1990s. In fact, “one in 10 report abusing cough medicine to get high,” according to the Partnership for a Drug-Free America.
Some abusers claim to have “good trips” in which they have strange yet enjoyable adventures, but others report “bad trips” that end in nausea and lethargy for several days afterward.
An anonymous University student was willing to share the details of her robotripping experience and explain why she will never robotrip again.
“The kind that we took was in syrup form, and it only had one active ingredient [Dextromethorphan],” she said, adding, “it was pretty fast to kick in because of the fact that I accidentally mixed it with high doses of acetaminophen.
“It didn’t make anything appear out of thin air, but it made it very easy for people with overactive imaginations, such as myself, to create things out of things that you see every day,” she explained.
Some of the sights the student saw include lanterns with trapped fairies inside, in place of light bulbs; patterns in the pavement turned into ants rushing out of anthills; and imagined obstacles blocked her way in the stairwell.
“It was just generally hard to move,” she said, noting, “Your muscles felt all weird.”
The experience continued to affect the student even as she sought to go to sleep for the evening.
“Then when I closed my eyes to try to go to sleep, it was as though what I was trying to dream was playing out as a movie on the inside of my eyelids like I was actually seeing what I was dreaming. It made it a lot harder to go to sleep because you were physically involved in what you were thinking,” she explained.
The student noted that the consequences of robotripping lasted for several days; the experience left her with several days of nausea, a body that wanted to do nothing but sleep and no desire to ever robotrip again.
“If you think about it, you are essentially poisoning yourself,” she said, adding, “I think at one point I remarked that ‘We wouldn’t even know if we overdosed until we were dead.’” As a result of DXM overdoses, thousands of people are sent to hospital emergency rooms every year, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The American Association of Poison Control Centers estimated 43,243 human exposures to DXM in 2007; however, Kell and senior toxicology fellow Nathan Charlton of the Blue Ridge Poison Center mentioned that this number only reflects the number of reported exposures. They estimated the true number of exposures in 2007 to be at least 10 times more than 43,243.
At any rate, the number of human exposures has increased significantly among adolescents in the past few years, according to the AAFP, which also reports that most DXM abusers are 12 to 17 years old, with 15- and 16-year-olds being the most involved in DXM abuse. Although many abusers are not college-aged, “use of Robitussin occasionally shows up in college populations,” said University Psychology Lecturer Kevin Doyle, a licensed professional counselor and the instructor for EDHS 224, “Substance Abuse in Society.”
“You see it less in college populations than in high school, possibly because college students have access to other things as well,” Doyle said. “They will have moved on to other things.”
Doyle suggested that people in search of non-emergency help consult a qualified professional for a confidential assessment and recommendation of treatment.
“A common misconception of all substances is that people say ‘Oh, just stop using,’ but it’s not that easy,” he said. “CAPS is a good place to start for students.”
Sarah Puckett contributed to this article.
Read More
U.Va. Health sees a spike in COVID-19 cases
By Emily Horn | September 4, 2023U.Va. Health ended their vaccination requirements in August, and masks were made optional in most hospital areas in early April.
U.Va. Cancer Center harnesses $12 million grant to support opportunities for undergraduates, ongoing research and new center
By Ellen Wu | January 12, 2023The grant provides an opportunity to establish the Center for Systems Analysis of Stress-Adapted Cancer Organelles, which seeks to find the cause of cancer in individual organelles.
U.Va. Health's rural neurology clinics receive a $500,000 grant to fund research and patient care
By Shrinidhi Kittur | January 12, 2023Established in the rural towns of Tazewell, Abingdon and Wise, the clinics have been providing patient care to otherwise underserved populations for decades.
