A life-threatening ventricular arrhythmia secondary to loperamide abuse, “a poor man’s methadone”

Abstract

The case of a patient with repetitive syncope episodes with a history of using loperamide at high doses for recreational purposes in search of an effect similar to heroin, is reported. In the diagnostic approach with Holter monitoring, ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation were evidenced. We also present the treatment of our case and review the literature.

Keywords

• loperamide
• ventricular tachycardia
• ventricular fibrillation
• drug-induced syncope
• holter monitoring