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coat pills with emetics to prevent overdose

Make the surface of pills just slightly emetic, if you take too many you vomit; otherwise you are fine.
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What to do about pill overdoses?

Make the surface of the pills very slightly emetic (vomit inducing)

You can imagine a technology where a 1/100th dose of an emetic is at the surface of each pill. If you take more than 50, you have a 50% chance of vomiting what you took.

If you take 100, you have a 100% chance of vomiting.

Vomiting of course removes 40-90% of the oral dose of the pill.

beanangel, Jan 13 2018

Baked and patented https://www.google.com/patents/US9060950
It's enough to make you sick. [MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 15 2018]

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       The strange thing, [beany], is that this is not such a stupid idea.
MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 13 2018
  

       Yes, nice idea but a slight emetic might create subtle effects which may be contra to the active ingredient's goal.   

       [Ian] 2 out of 10. Needed more, such as wearing too many coats can make you sick.
wjt, Jan 13 2018
  

       Any possibility of making a binary emetic? Then make half of the pills have one of the components, while the others have the second component. The pills should be visually indistinguishable. If you take one, it has no emetic effect. If you take two, there is a 50% chance of getting both components and inducing vomiting.
scad mientist, Jan 14 2018
  

       What if the tablets are anti-nauseants ?
8th of 7, Jan 14 2018
  

       //Any possibility of making a binary emetic? Then make half of the pills have one of the components, while the others have the second component.//   

       Was just about to write that. Darn!   

       I like this better than having something that might make you slightly sick with a regular dosage, since it seems like a regular dosage with a little bit of the vomity stuff would cause a little stomach upset. This would be a way to make the person violently ill with anything over a couple of pills.
doctorremulac3, Jan 14 2018
  

       For many (but not all) medicines, the dangerous dose is many times the maximum prescribed dose. I think a weak emetic might work in many cases. Paracetamol would be difficult, though, because doses above 10g can be dangerous, whilst many people take 1-3g per day to manage pain.
MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 14 2018
  

       //If you take more than 50, you have a 50% chance of vomiting what you took.   

       If you take 100, you have a 100% chance of vomiting.//   

       That's not how odds work.
Voice, Jan 14 2018
  

       One could always put a sub-critical mass of a suitable isotope in each pill.
MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 14 2018
  

       The isotope with the smallest critical mass your primitive human science knows of is californium-252, with a critical mass of 2.73kg for an isotropic bare sphere, and a half-life of 2.6 Earth years.   

       Any other brilliant insights ... ?
8th of 7, Jan 14 2018
  

       Clearly, the borg are not yet familiar with elements in the Third Sea of Stability.   

       Any other brilliant insights ... ?
MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 14 2018
  

       Oh Yes We Are ...   

       Sp. "Borg".
8th of 7, Jan 14 2018
  

       You're turning this into a pantomime...
8th of 7, Jan 14 2018
  

       //Oh Yes We Are// Oh no you're not.   

       // Sp. "Borg"// My apologies; I'm used to typing the lowercase version, as in "suborganization".   

       //Observe, O link, up there!// That makes no grammatical sense whatsoeveratall. Moreovermore, the link itself seems to be unrelevant.   

       //it seems like a regular dosage with a little bit of the vomity stuff would cause a little stomach upset// Alcohol and salt are convenient counterexamples. However, regarding binary emetics, you would probably want (a) a pro-emetic that was inactive but capable of being converted into a strong emetic and (b) an acid-tolerant enzyme that performed the necessary conversion.
MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 14 2018
  

       // Oh no you're not. //   

       Omnes: "OH YES YOU ARE !"   

       // (a) a pro-emetic that was inactive but capable of being converted into a strong emetic and (b) an acid-tolerant enzyme that performed the necessary conversion. //   

       There's got to be a better way ...
8th of 7, Jan 14 2018
  

       // There's got to be a better way ...// Well, there's an *other* way... bet there's not too many overdoses from suppositories. In keeping with the idea, a light coating of Propulsid - which does pretty much what it says - would be effective.
FlyingToaster, Jan 15 2018
  

       // not too many overdoses from suppositories. //   

       Apart from the notorious "sherry enema" incident …
8th of 7, Jan 15 2018
  

       // "Sherry Enema"// isn't she Donald Trump's foreign policy advisor?
MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 15 2018
  

       No, she was Bill Clinton's "personal assistant" ...
8th of 7, Jan 15 2018
  

       See <link> "This invention provides capsules containing an emetic, which capsules can encapsulate a drug, wherein the amount of emetic and the amount of drug is such that the number of capsules needed to be ingested to cause emesis is fewer than the number of capsules needed to be ingested to cause overdose of the drug, so that if a person takes an overdose of the emetic encapsulated drug, he or she will vomit before the drug is absorbed by the body."
MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 15 2018
  

       [mb] Thanks. It is always better to have something useful already exist. I appreciate the look-up. The patent says "Between 1970 and 2000, some 131,000 people died by accidental drug overdose" I doubt it but maybe I will think of some other thing. As far as I know [scad mientist]'s idea is still new.
beanangel, Jan 15 2018
  

       Useful? My understanding of that which constituted a halfbaked idea is clearly out of step. Can we quickly return to "trained hamsters skating in formation on frozen custard" type of idea?
xenzag, Jan 15 2018
  

       Trained xhamsters skating on custard... almost lurid, yet still absurd.   

       Also, thinking up the cute ones is harder... Now I'm onto double layer pantiliners.
beanangel, Jan 15 2018
  

       // Baked and Patented // I'd call that patented, but I see no evidence that someone has actually baked this idea, either experimentally or for mass consumption. This HB idea should definitely not be deleted to encourage someone to actually bake this idea (assuming it actually turns out to be a good idea when baked). It sounds like the patented idea actually considers this idea to be prior art: //U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,175,119 and 4,529,583, herein incorporated by reference, disclose a medicinal composition whereby a tablet or capsule is coated with an emetic to prevent accidental or purposeful drug overdose. However, this requires the use of coating machines which health care professionals may not have access to.//   

       The linked patent is a standard capsule in which many different drugs could be delivered. The capsule could be effective against accidental overdose, and might be easier to roll out to multiple drug manufacturers, but would not seem to be effective against preventing intentional overdose if someone was aware of the emetic capsule and could empty the drugs out of the capsules.
scad mientist, Jan 15 2018
  

       Don’t prescribe as a remedy to bulimia.
RayfordSteele, Jan 15 2018
  


 

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