
SOUTH JERSEY (KYW Newsradio) — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says New Jersey is experiencing an increase in medical episodes involving people who are consuming a widely available supplement known to many as “gas station heroin.”
The supplement, tianeptine, is not approved by the Food and Drug Administration for any medical use, but it is available in elixirs at many gas stations and smoke shops.
“These products are not regulated drugs,” said Dr. Diane Calello, medical director of the poison control center at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. “They’re sold in this gray area of supplements, and the requirements for supplements are much more relaxed.”
The products are often marketed as treatment for depression and anxiety. Calello says tianeptine has similar properties to antidepressants.
However, she says 37 people have been treated for a variety of symptoms from consuming tianeptine since June, which is up from one or two cases annually. Calello described some symptoms.
“What we call ‘altered mental status’ — so, that can be very sleepy or comatose or very agitated, having hallucinations or acting bizarrely,” Calello said. “We see patients with low blood pressure. A number of our patients have had seizures.”
Officials are seeing issues with many people who have used an over-the-counter elixir called Neptune’s Fix, which contains tianeptine. That product has been recalled, but Calello believes there are other dangerous substances at work. “People are getting sick in large part because I think the products they’re taking do not contain only tianeptine,” she said.
And according to Dr. Angela Skrzynski, a primary care physician at Virtua Health, there are other popular products, such as Zaza, with similar ingredients.
She says if you know someone who is acting bizarrely after drinking one of these, make sure they see a doctor right away. “The ER is probably the best place to go,” she advised.
Skrzynski stresses the importance of understanding what you put in your body. And she suggests people perhaps stay away from anything called “gas station heroin.”