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Famous Faces of Polypharmacy…

Posted in Famous Faces of Polypharmacy with tags , , , , , , on October 14, 2008 by pharmfour

 

Heath Ledger

     Most everyone is well aware of Heath Ledger’s untimely death.  After what seemed like a lot of debate and investigation, his death was declared accidental due to polypharmacy.  Heath’s toxicololgy report concluded that he died as the result of “acute intoxication by the combined effects of oxycodone, hydrocodone, diazepam (Valium), temazepam (Restoril), alprazolam (Xanax) and doxylamine (an antihistamine used to treat insomnia and is found in NyQuil).”

Here is an interesting article from USA Today about Mr. Ledger and polypharmacy.  http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-02-11-ledger-polypharmacy_N.htm?csp=1

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heath_Ledger

 

 

 

Elvis Presley

     Elvis was all to familiar with the world of polypharmacy.  There are many different speculations about the death of Elvis.  Some say he died of a heart attack, some say he didn’t really die at all!  Many people tend to believe he died due to polypharmacy.  It was found that Elvis’ doctor had prescribed more than 10,000 doses of sedatives, amphetamines, and narcotics in the first eight months of 1977 alone, all in Elvis’ name (that is 41 doses a day!)

 Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elvis_Presley#Final_year_and_death

 

 

Adolf Hitler

     I don’t know to many fans of Hitler, but he, too, was known to take many, many different medications. He has been rumored to have had syphilis, schizophrenia, GI issues, insomnia, Parkinson’s, and an expert in austism spectrum disorders reported that Hitler met all the criteria of Asperger Syndrome.  Regardless of what Hitler may or may not have had, it has been well documented that he was taking multiple medications simultaneously.  Wikipedia states that by April 1945, Hitler was taking 28 different pills a day along with numerous injections (including many of glucose) every few hours and intravenous injections of methamphetamine at least one almost every day.  That seems like it could really effect one’s decision making skills and rational thought… too bad he was trying to take over the world!

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodor_Morell and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Hitler%27s_medical_health

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