Phencyclidine overdose: an emerging concept of management

Emergency physicians should be prepared to treat overdosage from phencyclidine, a common street drug abused throughout North America. A dearth of laboratory resources to establish the diagnosis makes it essential that diagnoses include awareness of symptomatology. A specific therapeutic approach utilizing ion-trapping by continuous gastric suctioning and acidification of urine and/or blood can be used successfully to treat these patients.