Dear Fiction Dr.,

I'm writing a scene where my heroine has taken an anti-anxiety medication. She's having a bad reaction to it...sort of a floaty, LSD type of thing (not that I would know of course....one glass of wine is my limit). She feels light and thinks her fingers look too long...not too bad, can still talk and stuff like that.

So if someone were having a reaction like that, would they be considered allergic to that medication? And what would the ER doctor give her for it?

Thanks,
Kristan

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Hi Kristan,

If your heroine has taken a common anti-anxiety drug, like Xanax (a benzodiazepine) then her symptoms don't necessarily have to be an allergic reaction. They could be a result of an individual side-effect, or maybe accidentally taking it in combination with a "cold" medication (antihistamine), or even a glass of wine.

There is a medication that can reverse the side-effects of benzodiazepines, called Flumazenil (trade names Mazicon, Anexate, etc). It is given in the emergency room via IV and its peak effect is usually seen within six to ten minutes. The dose for adults is 200 ug (or 2 ml) every 1-2 minutes until the effect is seen (max 3 mg per hour). Flumazenil will reverse sedation, impairment of recall, psychomotor impairment, and ventilatory depression.

Hope that helps! Let me know if you need any more details.

Best of luck with your book.

Dr. Karen

 

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