Selected Podcast
The Arkansas Poison Center: What They Do and How They Can Help You
Dr. Filip is Medical Director of the Arkansas Poison and Drug Information Center (also known as the Arkansas Poison Control or Arkansas Poison Center). The Poison Center is based out of UAMS and operates 24/7/365 providing free advice on poisonings and drug exposures to Arkansas residents and healthcare facilities. Dr. Filip also works in the Emergency Department at UAMS where he consults on acutely poisoned patients. This is one of two hospitals in the state that offer this service, with the other being Arkansas Children’s Hospital.
Featured Speaker:
Learn more about Ari Filip, MD
Ari Filip, MD
Ari Filip, MD is the Medical Director, Arkansas Poison and Drug Information Center.Learn more about Ari Filip, MD
Transcription:
The Arkansas Poison Center: What They Do and How They Can Help You
Evo Terra: Today, we're learning about the Arkansas Poison Center, what they do, and how they can help you. I'll be joined by Dr. Ari Filip, the Medical Director for the Arkansas Poison and Drug Information Center.
This is UAMS Health Talk, the podcast from the University of Arkansas from Medical Sciences. I'm Evo Terra. Dr. Filip, welcome to the show.
Dr. Ari Filip: Thank you for having me.
Evo Terra: Let's start with the basics and the most important thing, if someone needs to reach the poison center right now, how do they reach the poison center?
Dr. Ari Filip: All right. So, I hope people have their phones out. Anyone can call this number. It's going to be 1-800-222-1222. Again, that's 1-800-222-1222, is a toll-free, completely free number that anyone can reach the poison center 24/7, 365. Now if you're outside the state of Arkansas, it might connect to your local poison center. But that is the number, if you're here in this state, that will get you to reach us.
Evo Terra: A poison center is the right poison center to reach when you need to reach a poison center, I think. No doubt. So, can you tell me what are some of the common calls that you receive there at the Arkansas Poison Center?
Dr. Ari Filip: Sure. I would say the most common type of call that we get is a young patient that accidentally gets into either a medication or a household product like bleach or cleaning solutions, or maybe gets exposed to something, maybe something gets in their eye. But we do get calls from adults as well. People who have swapped their medications, taken too much of a medication, concerned they're having a bad reaction to a medication. And then, other unusual things like exposures to plants and animals. And then, we do get calls from healthcare facilities as well. And so, we're always happy to assist them on more serious poisonings, like when people try to overdose on their medications.
Evo Terra: You brought up kids and I'm reminded of the time when my son might have been two and found a toy gumball machine for like a dollhouse or something and managed to crack that open and eat the gumballs. But of course, they weren't gumballs. I just didn't know what they were. So, what did I do? I called the poison center to find out what I should do next.
Dr. Ari Filip: Yeah, I hope that everyone has a reassuring story in their back pocket of someone who's called the poison center. And hopefully, we feel approachable to most people.
Evo Terra: So, that's some common ways. Let's talk about the opposite. What are some ways this center can help us that we're not really thinking of as people?
Dr. Ari Filip: Yeah. So especially, our first thought when we get exposed to a plant or animal might not be, "Let me call the poison center." We might think of poisonings as being toxic substances that you might ingest or overdose on. But we handle over a hundred calls per year, for example, on snake bite envenomations, we get frequent consults about things like brown recluse spider bites; all of which can be potentially very serious poisonings. And we have a lot of experience in the nuances of treating these things. They may not necessarily be very common to the people who are treating them or to the people who might be exposed to them. And some people might be really freaked out by them and their first inclination might be either to call 911 or to rush on over to the ER. But a lot of the times, if you can call us, we can walk you through it and be able to tell you like, "Hey, this plant is probably going to be okay. You probably don't need to bring your child into the ER" or, "Hey, this is actually pretty scary. You should rush on over to the ER as soon as you can."
Evo Terra: I would imagine also people like myself who like to pick wild fruits and sometimes other plants that we think we know what they are or, in my case, I only would do that if I know exactly what they are. But there is that risk as well, I would imagine.
Dr. Ari Filip: Yeah, absolutely. And so, probably one of the most common calls we get are things like, pokeweeds, which look kind of like wild blackberries, which can actually be irritating to you if you happen to eat them. But there are some pretty scary things out there too, like particularly some forage mushrooms. If you are not a hundred percent sure what you're doing, there are even mushrooms called like the death cap mushrooms, which is absolutely as scary as it sounds. And so as the saying goes, there are old mushroom hunters and there are bold mushroom hunters, but there are no old bold mushroom hunters. And so, we really caution people against that sort of thing. And if you're ever concerned you could have been exposed to something like that, then definitely, definitely give us a call.
Evo Terra: You know, one of the things that causes people to do silly things like pick things randomly and eat them is things that they've read about on the internet or through social media, other sorts of non-professionals telling you what to do. What has been the impact of social media for your work there at the poison center?
Dr. Ari Filip: Yeah. So, one of the biggest places that we see this is unfortunately different trends that we see on sites like TikTok or Instagram. Really, TikTok is probably the most common one, but I'm sure you've heard of things like the Tide Pod challenge and, more recently, things like the Benadryl challenge where people will take Benadryl until the point where they pretty much hallucinate. And some of these things can actually be really, really serious, and people wind up in the hospital, they wind up in the intensive care unit. They can have scary things happen to them like seizures or worse. And so just because you're seeing a very glamorized version of this on the internet, that other people are doing it and seems like they might have a fun time or go on a wacky trip, it can really wind you in some very, very serious hot water and wind up doing to you some things that you can't really take back.
Evo Terra: Yeah. That's probably one of the largest challenges that we have now is we're bombarded by all of this things, and it's a new world than it was when I was a kid or when I was raising a kid. But speaking of that, I would imagine you've seen lots of changes over the time since poison centers have been active. What's trending now? What's different than it was yesterday?
Dr. Ari Filip: Yeah. So, unfortunately, in terms of our big trends, we are seeing a lot more calls that come from healthcare facilities that relate to intentional pediatric ingestions, which is to say kids trying to harm themselves by taking too much of their medication or someone else's medication. And this is one of the things that we're trying to navigate, both with different helplines and other resources and also just making ourself more accessible to these healthcare facilities.
But some other things that we've seen as a global trend, especially over the past few years, and this is not just here in Arkansas, this is nationwide, we're seeing exposures to things like THC gummies, which you might have seen on the news. You know, it's young kids that might think that this is like a gummy bear or some other edible product. They see it on the floor or they see it in the cupboard, and a small kid might take a human-sized amount of this and they might take multiple of a human-sized amount of this and that can certainly wind them in hot water as well. These patients sometimes wind up being admitted to the hospital, being admitted to a pediatric ICU. And there can be some scary things that can happen with this. And this comes at a time that's a little bit challenging because especially over this past winter, when our hospitals seem like they're bursting at the seams with people with respiratory viruses and cold and flu season, this extra added injury can overwhelm the healthcare system.
Evo Terra: Yeah, it's definitely been a tough time. And you're right, we have a changed philosophy nationwide and in fact worldwide when it comes to things that used to be considered harmful substances that are not harmful substances, and THC obviously being one of those. But also, we can't not talk about the fact of the opioid problem and specifically fentanyl and what we're seeing now. What's been your experiences thus far?
Dr. Ari Filip: Yeah. It's similar to the rest of the country and the world, we're seeing the rise of fentanyl, unfortunately. One of the hard things is that we've been so used to over the years testing for things like morphine that sometimes even a lot of common drug tests won't pick up for things like fentanyl. There isn't sometimes a lot of awareness about things like fentanyl. And albeit there's a lot of sensationalized information out there about fentanyl, but the truth of the matter is that very, very, very tiny amounts of it can be extremely harmful. And so, it's very easy for people to distribute large amounts of it into the drug supply. And it's winding up in places that you might not expect. People that think that they're getting some other drug winds up that there's fentanyl in it. And so, it's something that's always on our radar and something that is just so potent that it really worries us.
Evo Terra: Let's wrap this up with something that I think is a good idea. You've ingested something, you've picked up a plant, you've been bitten, something has happened, what should the listener do?
Dr. Ari Filip: First thing, I hope that everyone from earlier in our conversation has saved the poison center's number in our phone. Take a deep breath, and I think that as long as you are not having any severe symptoms at that moment, it's a good idea to pick up the phone, grab whatever it is that you could have been exposed to, unless it's, you know, say a snake. But grab the information of whatever you could have been exposed to and go ahead and give us a call. We have specially trained nurses and pharmacists that are able to pick up the phone 24/7, 365. Now, if you feel as if you're about to pass out, having trouble breathing or you're calling on behalf of someone who has become unresponsive or having a seizure, those are situations where you need to call 911 immediately. But if it's a situation where you're just worried that you could have been exposed to something and that you might develop symptoms, go ahead and give us a call and we can help navigate that situation for you.
Poison centers, you'll find that a lot of the time our job is not to say, "Ooh, that sounds bad. you need to get to the ER," but to be able to say, "Hmm, actually, you're probably going to be okay. You know, we'll watch you at home and we'll follow up with you." And our patients that give us a call, often we're calling them back multiple times just to check up on them and make sure that they're okay.
Evo Terra: And I got to say it is fantastic peace of mind when you call that phone number and they tell you that those little tiny toy gumballs that your son ingested are probably going to be okay. Probably going to be okay, but keep an eye on him.
Dr. Ari Filip: Yeah. They found that poison centers actually save a healthcare system a whole lot of money by being able to keep people out of the hospital. And we really wish everyone knew about us and felt comfortable calling us. I will shout it from the rooftops, you know, that 1-800 number .I think everyone should have it, albeit I'm a little bit biased.
Evo Terra: Excellent. Once again, doctor, thank you for all of the information and please put 1-800-222-1222 in your phones. Thank you, sir.
Dr. Ari Filip: I really appreciate you having us on here, and I'm happy to spread awareness about the center anytime that I can.
Evo Terra: And once again, that was Dr. Ari Filip, the Medical Director for the Arkansas Poison and Drug Information Center.
The Poison and Drug Information Center is a free service available to everyone in Arkansas or not, and it's open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Again, at 1-800-222-1222.
Thanks for checking out this episode of UAMS Health Talk. For more information on this topic and to access the resources mentioned, please visit uamshealth.com. If you found this podcast to be helpful, please share it on your social channels and be sure to check out our entire podcast library for topics of interest to you. My name is Evo Terra. Thanks so much for listening, and we'll talk next time.
The Arkansas Poison Center: What They Do and How They Can Help You
Evo Terra: Today, we're learning about the Arkansas Poison Center, what they do, and how they can help you. I'll be joined by Dr. Ari Filip, the Medical Director for the Arkansas Poison and Drug Information Center.
This is UAMS Health Talk, the podcast from the University of Arkansas from Medical Sciences. I'm Evo Terra. Dr. Filip, welcome to the show.
Dr. Ari Filip: Thank you for having me.
Evo Terra: Let's start with the basics and the most important thing, if someone needs to reach the poison center right now, how do they reach the poison center?
Dr. Ari Filip: All right. So, I hope people have their phones out. Anyone can call this number. It's going to be 1-800-222-1222. Again, that's 1-800-222-1222, is a toll-free, completely free number that anyone can reach the poison center 24/7, 365. Now if you're outside the state of Arkansas, it might connect to your local poison center. But that is the number, if you're here in this state, that will get you to reach us.
Evo Terra: A poison center is the right poison center to reach when you need to reach a poison center, I think. No doubt. So, can you tell me what are some of the common calls that you receive there at the Arkansas Poison Center?
Dr. Ari Filip: Sure. I would say the most common type of call that we get is a young patient that accidentally gets into either a medication or a household product like bleach or cleaning solutions, or maybe gets exposed to something, maybe something gets in their eye. But we do get calls from adults as well. People who have swapped their medications, taken too much of a medication, concerned they're having a bad reaction to a medication. And then, other unusual things like exposures to plants and animals. And then, we do get calls from healthcare facilities as well. And so, we're always happy to assist them on more serious poisonings, like when people try to overdose on their medications.
Evo Terra: You brought up kids and I'm reminded of the time when my son might have been two and found a toy gumball machine for like a dollhouse or something and managed to crack that open and eat the gumballs. But of course, they weren't gumballs. I just didn't know what they were. So, what did I do? I called the poison center to find out what I should do next.
Dr. Ari Filip: Yeah, I hope that everyone has a reassuring story in their back pocket of someone who's called the poison center. And hopefully, we feel approachable to most people.
Evo Terra: So, that's some common ways. Let's talk about the opposite. What are some ways this center can help us that we're not really thinking of as people?
Dr. Ari Filip: Yeah. So especially, our first thought when we get exposed to a plant or animal might not be, "Let me call the poison center." We might think of poisonings as being toxic substances that you might ingest or overdose on. But we handle over a hundred calls per year, for example, on snake bite envenomations, we get frequent consults about things like brown recluse spider bites; all of which can be potentially very serious poisonings. And we have a lot of experience in the nuances of treating these things. They may not necessarily be very common to the people who are treating them or to the people who might be exposed to them. And some people might be really freaked out by them and their first inclination might be either to call 911 or to rush on over to the ER. But a lot of the times, if you can call us, we can walk you through it and be able to tell you like, "Hey, this plant is probably going to be okay. You probably don't need to bring your child into the ER" or, "Hey, this is actually pretty scary. You should rush on over to the ER as soon as you can."
Evo Terra: I would imagine also people like myself who like to pick wild fruits and sometimes other plants that we think we know what they are or, in my case, I only would do that if I know exactly what they are. But there is that risk as well, I would imagine.
Dr. Ari Filip: Yeah, absolutely. And so, probably one of the most common calls we get are things like, pokeweeds, which look kind of like wild blackberries, which can actually be irritating to you if you happen to eat them. But there are some pretty scary things out there too, like particularly some forage mushrooms. If you are not a hundred percent sure what you're doing, there are even mushrooms called like the death cap mushrooms, which is absolutely as scary as it sounds. And so as the saying goes, there are old mushroom hunters and there are bold mushroom hunters, but there are no old bold mushroom hunters. And so, we really caution people against that sort of thing. And if you're ever concerned you could have been exposed to something like that, then definitely, definitely give us a call.
Evo Terra: You know, one of the things that causes people to do silly things like pick things randomly and eat them is things that they've read about on the internet or through social media, other sorts of non-professionals telling you what to do. What has been the impact of social media for your work there at the poison center?
Dr. Ari Filip: Yeah. So, one of the biggest places that we see this is unfortunately different trends that we see on sites like TikTok or Instagram. Really, TikTok is probably the most common one, but I'm sure you've heard of things like the Tide Pod challenge and, more recently, things like the Benadryl challenge where people will take Benadryl until the point where they pretty much hallucinate. And some of these things can actually be really, really serious, and people wind up in the hospital, they wind up in the intensive care unit. They can have scary things happen to them like seizures or worse. And so just because you're seeing a very glamorized version of this on the internet, that other people are doing it and seems like they might have a fun time or go on a wacky trip, it can really wind you in some very, very serious hot water and wind up doing to you some things that you can't really take back.
Evo Terra: Yeah. That's probably one of the largest challenges that we have now is we're bombarded by all of this things, and it's a new world than it was when I was a kid or when I was raising a kid. But speaking of that, I would imagine you've seen lots of changes over the time since poison centers have been active. What's trending now? What's different than it was yesterday?
Dr. Ari Filip: Yeah. So, unfortunately, in terms of our big trends, we are seeing a lot more calls that come from healthcare facilities that relate to intentional pediatric ingestions, which is to say kids trying to harm themselves by taking too much of their medication or someone else's medication. And this is one of the things that we're trying to navigate, both with different helplines and other resources and also just making ourself more accessible to these healthcare facilities.
But some other things that we've seen as a global trend, especially over the past few years, and this is not just here in Arkansas, this is nationwide, we're seeing exposures to things like THC gummies, which you might have seen on the news. You know, it's young kids that might think that this is like a gummy bear or some other edible product. They see it on the floor or they see it in the cupboard, and a small kid might take a human-sized amount of this and they might take multiple of a human-sized amount of this and that can certainly wind them in hot water as well. These patients sometimes wind up being admitted to the hospital, being admitted to a pediatric ICU. And there can be some scary things that can happen with this. And this comes at a time that's a little bit challenging because especially over this past winter, when our hospitals seem like they're bursting at the seams with people with respiratory viruses and cold and flu season, this extra added injury can overwhelm the healthcare system.
Evo Terra: Yeah, it's definitely been a tough time. And you're right, we have a changed philosophy nationwide and in fact worldwide when it comes to things that used to be considered harmful substances that are not harmful substances, and THC obviously being one of those. But also, we can't not talk about the fact of the opioid problem and specifically fentanyl and what we're seeing now. What's been your experiences thus far?
Dr. Ari Filip: Yeah. It's similar to the rest of the country and the world, we're seeing the rise of fentanyl, unfortunately. One of the hard things is that we've been so used to over the years testing for things like morphine that sometimes even a lot of common drug tests won't pick up for things like fentanyl. There isn't sometimes a lot of awareness about things like fentanyl. And albeit there's a lot of sensationalized information out there about fentanyl, but the truth of the matter is that very, very, very tiny amounts of it can be extremely harmful. And so, it's very easy for people to distribute large amounts of it into the drug supply. And it's winding up in places that you might not expect. People that think that they're getting some other drug winds up that there's fentanyl in it. And so, it's something that's always on our radar and something that is just so potent that it really worries us.
Evo Terra: Let's wrap this up with something that I think is a good idea. You've ingested something, you've picked up a plant, you've been bitten, something has happened, what should the listener do?
Dr. Ari Filip: First thing, I hope that everyone from earlier in our conversation has saved the poison center's number in our phone. Take a deep breath, and I think that as long as you are not having any severe symptoms at that moment, it's a good idea to pick up the phone, grab whatever it is that you could have been exposed to, unless it's, you know, say a snake. But grab the information of whatever you could have been exposed to and go ahead and give us a call. We have specially trained nurses and pharmacists that are able to pick up the phone 24/7, 365. Now, if you feel as if you're about to pass out, having trouble breathing or you're calling on behalf of someone who has become unresponsive or having a seizure, those are situations where you need to call 911 immediately. But if it's a situation where you're just worried that you could have been exposed to something and that you might develop symptoms, go ahead and give us a call and we can help navigate that situation for you.
Poison centers, you'll find that a lot of the time our job is not to say, "Ooh, that sounds bad. you need to get to the ER," but to be able to say, "Hmm, actually, you're probably going to be okay. You know, we'll watch you at home and we'll follow up with you." And our patients that give us a call, often we're calling them back multiple times just to check up on them and make sure that they're okay.
Evo Terra: And I got to say it is fantastic peace of mind when you call that phone number and they tell you that those little tiny toy gumballs that your son ingested are probably going to be okay. Probably going to be okay, but keep an eye on him.
Dr. Ari Filip: Yeah. They found that poison centers actually save a healthcare system a whole lot of money by being able to keep people out of the hospital. And we really wish everyone knew about us and felt comfortable calling us. I will shout it from the rooftops, you know, that 1-800 number .I think everyone should have it, albeit I'm a little bit biased.
Evo Terra: Excellent. Once again, doctor, thank you for all of the information and please put 1-800-222-1222 in your phones. Thank you, sir.
Dr. Ari Filip: I really appreciate you having us on here, and I'm happy to spread awareness about the center anytime that I can.
Evo Terra: And once again, that was Dr. Ari Filip, the Medical Director for the Arkansas Poison and Drug Information Center.
The Poison and Drug Information Center is a free service available to everyone in Arkansas or not, and it's open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Again, at 1-800-222-1222.
Thanks for checking out this episode of UAMS Health Talk. For more information on this topic and to access the resources mentioned, please visit uamshealth.com. If you found this podcast to be helpful, please share it on your social channels and be sure to check out our entire podcast library for topics of interest to you. My name is Evo Terra. Thanks so much for listening, and we'll talk next time.