Emergency rooms across Philadelphia have reported a rise in patients experiencing withdrawal from medetomidine, a veterinary sedative increasingly mixed with fentanyl.
The citywide crisis — which first drew attention in May 2024 — is fueled by medetmodine’s rapid and life-threatening onset of withdrawal symptoms. In interviews with The Daily Pennsylvanian, physicians and researchers at Penn Medicine highlighted their ongoing efforts to treat cases, both at the hospital and following a patient’s discharge.
“There is overlap in withdrawal from medetomidine and withdrawal from opioids,” Ashish Thakrar, an assistant professor at the Perelman School of Medicine, said in an interview with the DP. He added that withdrawal from both types of drugs has been linked to elevations in blood pressure and heart rate, along with nausea, vomiting, and tremors…