Washington (AP) – Health officials want you to think twice before buying one of these small bottles in bright colors often sold in service stations, convenience stores and smoke stores.
Sometimes called “gas station heroine”, products are generally marketed in the form of energy plans or cognitive supplements, but actually contain tianeptine, an unprecedented drug that can be addictive and includes risks of serious side effects.
American poisons’ control centers have reported a constant increase in drug -related calls for more than a decade. And last month, Food and Drug Administration sent a warning to health professionals concerning “the extent of the underlying danger or these products”.
Here’s what you need to know about the heroine of the service station.
AP Audio: “The heroine of the service station” is technically illegal and widely available. Here are the facts
“The heroine of the service station” is technically illegal and widely available. Here are the facts. AP correspondent Julie Walker reports.
How are these products sold in the United States?
Tianeptine is approved in a number of foreign countries as an antidepressant, generally as a low dose pill taken three times a day. But it has never been approved by the FDA for no medical condition in the United States
In addition, the drug cannot be legally added to food and drinks or sold as a food supplement – something that the FDA has repeatedly warned American companies.
However, companies under the radar sell Tianeptine in various formulas, often with brand names like Zaza, Tianaa, Pegasus and TD Red. Although this is technically illegal, the FDA does not prepare the ingredients added to supplements and drinks.
“It is in a way this gray area of consumer products or supplements, where the content is not regulated or tested as they would be with a drug,” said Dr. Diane Calello of the New Jerson Poison Information and Education System.
Last year, Calello and his colleagues published a study documenting a group of emergency calls in New Jersey linked to an flavored elixir called Neptune’s Fix. People experienced distress, rapid heart rate, low blood pressure and crises after drinking it. More than a dozen of 20 patients had to be admitted for intensive care.
Why use these products?
Many Tianeptine products claim – without proof or approval from the FDA – to help users deal with medical conditions, including dependence, pain and depression.
In 2018, the FDA published a warning letter to the manufacturer of a product called Tianna, which claimed to provide “an unrivaled solution to the desires of opiates”.
Although Tianeptine is not an opioid, the drug binds to some of the same receptors in the brain, which can temporarily produce effects similar to oxycodone and other opioids. Tianeptine also has some of the same physiological risks of opioids, including the potential to dangerously depressing breathing.
“This is what tends to cause people to cause people,” said Dr. Hannah Hays of Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. “They use it for opioid type effects or to treat self-treatment of the withdrawal of opioids and this can result in the slowdown in breathing and problems like that.”
People dealing with dependence on opioids, pain, depression, anxiety and other conditions should see a health professional to obtain a prescription for treatments approved by the FDA, said Hays.
Does the use of tianeptine increase?
Experts are not safe, but national figures show a large increase in emergency calls involving the drug.
Calls for poisons control centers increased by 525% between 2018 and 2023, according to data analysis published earlier this year. In around 40% of cases, the person had to request medical care, with more than half of them needing intensive care.
An explanation of the increase in calls is simply that more Americans use the products.
But experts also say that products trigger more emergency because they become more powerful and dangerous. And New Jersey researchers who analyzed the Neptune fix found that the liquid also contained synthetic cannabis and other drugs.
“You never know what’s in this bottle,” said Calello. “It is important that people know that even if they have already used a product, they could get a bottle that contains something very different from what they are looking for.”
Are there policies that could reduce the use of tianeptine?
Tianeptine is not included in the federal law on controlled substances, which prohibits or restricted drugs which have no medical use or which have a high potential of abuse, such as heroin, LSD and PCP. But a dozen states have adopted laws prohibiting or restricting Tianeptine, including Alabama, Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Tennessee.
In some cases, these laws have led to more cases of withdrawal among users of Tianeptine, who can be chemically addictive. But state data also show some success in reducing drug -related damage.
Until recently, ALABAMA had the highest rate of Tianeptine-related calls in the southern United States, which increased by more than 1,400% between 2018 and 2021. But after the limited state La Tianeptine in 2021 began to decrease modestly while calls through other southern states have continued to climb.
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