Toxins Vs Antidotes

verifier1

Department of General Medicine

Antidote is a drug or substance that counteracts the effects of poison or overdosage  by another drug. It neutralizes the harmful effects of a poison. The term Antidote derives from the Greek  antididonai, "given against".

Antidotes for particular toxins are  produced by injecting the toxin into an animal in small doses and extracting the developing antibodies from the host animals' blood. An antivenom that can be also used to counteract poison produced by certain species of snakes,spiders and other venomous animals.

Some animal venoms, especially those produced by arthropodes(e.g. certain scorpions,bees,spiders etc.) are only potentially lethal when they provoke allergic reactions and induce anaphylatic shock ; as such, there is no "antidote" for these venoms because it is not a type of poisoning and anaphylactic shock ,that can be treated by the use of epinephrine.

Some toxins have no antidote. For example, the poison aconitine – a highly poisonous alkaloid  derived from various aconite species– has no antidote, and as a result is often lethal if it enters the human body in  abundant quantities.

Ingested toxins or poisons are  often treated by the oral administration of activated charcoal, which adsorbs  the poison and flushes out from the digestive tract, thereby removing a large part of the toxin from the body. Poisons that are injected into the body (from bites or stings from venomous animals) are usually treated by the use of a constriction band which limits the flow of lymph or blood to that area, thus lowering the circulation of  poison around the body.

Reference:

• Antidote ;From Wikkipedia
• Slide world  ;Medical care- Avent Philips;PPT Presentation 
• Antidote; From Drugs.com