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What kills everyone, gives a high for some-Recreational Snake Envenomation
Lekhansh Shukla1, Shiva Shanker Reddy1, Arun Kandasamy1
1Centre for Addiction Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, National Institute of Mental Health Neurosciences, Bangalore, 560029, India.
Abstract:
There are multiple reports of recreational snake envenomation describing psychotropic effects in absence of any adverse effects. This is in contradiction with known effects of snake venom. We report a case of a young male who subjected himself to repeated envenomation by a snake purported to be 'Indian Cobra' and experienced a 'high'. However, a direct identification of snake revealed it was a benign 'Rat snake'. We attempt to explain the reported psychological effects as a result of high expectation of rewarding experience, strong suggestion, personality traits and most importantly the dangerous nature of willfully receiving snakebites.
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