Bad Fad: Teen Dies After Doing TikTok 'Benadryl Challenge'

*The following is excerpted from an online article posted on Forbes.

A 15-year old girl from Oklahoma has reportedly died after taking an excessive amount of the anti-allergy medication Benadryl as part of a challenge on social media app TikTok.

The challenge involves TikTok users daring each other to take large amounts of the medication, which is usually taken to relieve allergy symptoms from conditions like hayfever. However, when taken in excessive quantities, the drug also known as diphenhydramine can cause hallucinations and a wealth of unpleasant and dangerous side effects, some of which can be fatal.

“Benadryl in large doses can cause seizures and cardiac arrests. If young people are being encouraged to take it in large doses on TikTok, this is very dangerous,” said David Juurlink, MD, head of the division of clinical pharmacology and toxicology at the University of Toronto in Canada. “This is not a drug people should be experimenting with,” Juurlink added.

Back in May, three teens from Texas were treated at Cook’s Children’s Hospital after also overdosing on the drug, one of them, a fourteen-year-old, reportedly taking 14 pills at once.

Source: Forbes.com
https://www.forbes.com/sites/victoriaforster/2020/09/02/teen-dies-after-doing--tiktok-benadryl-challengeas-doctors-warn-of-dangers/#330a102f0db8