The doctor will take a history and perform a physical examination to look for evidence of poisoning.

Agitation, fever, convulsions, collapse, confusion, coma.If you have been taking aspirin and begin to have ringing in your ears, call your doctor to see if the medication should be stopped or the dosage reduced.įor all other symptoms, call 911 (or the local emergency phone number) immediately. Serious dehydration may occur from hyperventilation, vomiting, and fever. Vomiting may occur 3-8 hours after taking too much aspirin. The abnormal breathing caused by aspirin poisoning is usually rapid and deep. Later signs of aspirin poisoning, or signs of more significant poisoning, can include drowsiness or confusion, bizarre behavior, unsteady walking, and coma. More clinically significant signs and symptoms may include rapid breathing (hyperventilation), vomiting, dehydration, fever, double vision, and feeling faint. The earliest symptoms of acute aspirin poisoning may include ringing in the ears ( tinnitus) and impaired hearing. This is especially likely to occur in older people with chronic health problems. Unintentional poisoning can result if these medications are taken in combination, in inappropriate doses, or over a long time period. Hundreds of medications - both over-the-counter and prescription medicines - contain aspirin or aspirin-like substances. Inappropriate dosing in both children and elderly people is one of the reasons accidental aspirin poisonings continue to happen.

Safety precautions such as child-resistant packaging has helped make it less common. Some reasons include:Īspirin poisoning can also be accidental and was once the most common cause of accidental poisoning of children. Aspirin Poisoning Causesįor a variety of reasons, some people intentionally ingest poisons or poison others. He used powder extracted from the bark of willows to treat pain and reduce fever. The earliest known uses of the drug can be traced back to the Greek physician Hippocrates in the fifth century BC. Aspirin is another name for acetylsalicylic acid, a common pain reliever (also called an analgesic).

Salicylate poisoning antidote