Hospital care for sleeping pill overdose?

Question

If someone overdosed on sleeping pills, what treatment would the hospital give them? This is for a piece of fiction, I'm not suicidal or anything.

Answer 1

Most likely have their stomach pumped and a good days stay to make sure they are all right and probably have to speak to a phsychiatrist.

Answer 2

Sleeping pills generally have no major problems associated with them except for respiratory depression, and it's quite rare to have to intubate/mechanically ventilate somebody who's OD'd on them. Generally they only need minimal supportive care and a psychiatric evaluation.
If the pills were taken within an hour or so prior to getting to the hospital, the person might be given activated charcoal to try to limit the dose absorbed. Gastric lavage is no longer recommended, though some do it anyway.
Flumazenil can reverse the effects of benzodiazepines, but if the patient has been taking them chronically, there's a risk of uncontrollable seizures following its use. I've seen it used in the E.D. by cowboys who just had to do something, but they're idiots. This is a situation where the thing to do is, "Don't just do something, stand there!" The patients almost universally do fine as long as you don't do too much treatment.

Answer 3

Depends on the type of sleeping pill used. Older ones like phenobarbital can be cardiotoxic at high doses, so hospital care would be revovled around reversing cardiac symptoms and removing the drug from the body (activated charcoal, gastric lavage, etc.). Then drugs like valium or xanax are hard to overdose on, so if the patient is not in distress they usually just let the drug wear-off... unless the person has downed another central nervous system depressant along with it... then the valium can cause respiratory depression (i.e. when mixed with other drugs like alcohol or opiates). There is a specific antidote given for benzodiazepine (valium) overdose called flumazenil but it can have unpredictable responses and is expensive so use is limited.