Snake Bite as a Novel Form of Substance Abuse: Personality Profiles and Cultural Perspectives

Katshu, Mohammad Zia Ul Haq; Dubey, Indu; Khess, Christoday Raja Jayant; Sarkhel, Sujit

doi:10.1080/08897077.2011.540482

Cited by 18 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…[3] Moreover, snakes form an important part of Hindu mythology and are worshipped even today,[5] thereby general population being unafraid of them. During middle age period, physicians used snake venom of various snakes as medicinal agents.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This is reported in order to create awareness of such issues among emergency physicians and practitioners. There were three reported cases of snake venom use in psychoactive substance users to experience “high.”[123] There are few cases of such addiction to semipoisonous snakes like rat snake and green wine, reported in the local press. However, to our knowledge, this is the first report of willful exposure to snake venom from direct bite for the purpose of mental relaxation among nonusers of illicit drugs and without any underlying psychiatric disorders.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Repeated snake bite for recreation: Mechanisms and implications

Shah

Balamurugan

Menezes

et al. 2013

Int J Crit Illn Inj Sci

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Snake venom use for recreational purposes has been documented earlier. Willfully subjecting oneself to repeated lethal snake bite as a source of getting relieved of stress and recreation observed in two healthy software engineers, without any underlying psychiatric ailments or comorbidities along with probable mechanisms, are reported. Emergency physicians and practitioners have to be aware of novel methods of exposure to snake venom so as to recognize such cases and treat them accordingly.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Repeated snake bite for recreation: Mechanisms and implications

Shah

Balamurugan

Menezes

et al. 2013

Int J Crit Illn Inj Sci

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“…For a toxicologist working on individual venom components, whether there is signi cant variation in the lethality of venom components between snakes within the same species is an open question. There are tantalizing reports from India, for instance the practice of recreational cobra bites, which are suggestive of inbred strains [44,45]. Researching this question will require many samples from wild as well as inbred, quasi-domestic, snakes, optimally, with geolocation, size, estimated age, and sex recorded, with attention to sample sizes and control of test species.…”

Section: Research For Venom Toxicologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Curiouser and curiouser: Meta-analysis of venom toxicity of 160 lethal ophidian species shows extraordinary variance, and falsifies common assumptions, providing a basis for estimating human lethal doses.

Hanley¹

2020

Preprint

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Background: This is the first meta-analysis to characterize intra-ophidian-species variation in whole venom. The largest meta-analysis possible at this time, it encompasses all known publicly available records of animal lethality studies over the past 100 years. These results are not artifacts of resistant test-animal-species, and show orders of magnitude beyond the 1.6 logs (40 fold change) range of lethal dose documented in literature between amphibians, lizards and mice. Methods: 1005 lethal dose study results for 160 of the most lethal venomous ophidian species in the world are analyzed. Results: LDLo does not differentiate from LD50 across studies, indicating the true range of toxicity is probably larger. The belief that for route of inoculation, IC<IV<IP<IM<SC has good support (R2 = 0.86). However, 8% of SC inoculations were the lowest (most toxic) dose. Within the mouse test species, for one route of inoculation, the mean LD range is 0.94 logs (8.89 fold change), and widest LD range is 2.15 logs (141 fold change, N = 26). Within 1 test species, for multiple routes of inoculation, mean LD range is 2.0 logs (98.97 fold change), and the widest LD range is 3.6 logs (4,150 fold change). For all test species and all routes of inoculation, the mean LD range is 2.97 logs (936.59 fold change) and widest LD range is 4.76 logs (57,471 fold change). The strongest correlate for range of lethal dose results is the number of studies (R2 = 0.56). The average variance appears to follow a power law from single test species and route, to single test species and multiple routes, to all test species and all routes, as a factor of 10 multiple for each. Conclusions: Scientists working with humans should use combined LDLo and LD50 meta-datasets for all data and calculate: mean, median, minimum, range, and standard deviations. Standard deviation multiples, or at minimum, standard error, will provide desired coverage. For estimating LD50 range and minimum lethal dose for species with little data, I recommend curating a meta-dataset of related snakes, and computational research to strengthen this.

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“…Bites were taken mostly on the tip of tongue, and said to have a longer 'kick' for these patients! 'Snake bite' as a form of drug abuse is a rarely reported form of abuse 27,28 .…”

Section: Marijuana MIXmentioning

confidence: 99%