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Case Reports
. 2025 May;54(5):1159-1163.
doi: 10.1007/s00256-024-04850-w. Epub 2024 Dec 10.

Rhabdomyolysis following diphenhydramine overdose-a case report

Adil Basha  1   2 , Rifat Karatas  2 , Atul Kumar Taneja  2 , Avneesh Chhabra  2 , Flavio Duarte Silva  3
Affiliations
Case Reports

Rhabdomyolysis following diphenhydramine overdose-a case report

Adil Basha et al. Skeletal Radiol. 2025 May.

Erratum in

Abstract

Antihistamines, such as diphenhydramine, are active ingredients of a wide variety of antiallergics, sedatives, and sleep preparations and are often abused for purposes of euphoric effects or suicidal attempts. Antihistaminic overdose presents with symptoms of increased anticholinergic activity including urinary retention, mydriasis, and dry mucous membranes. However, antihistamine-induced rhabdomyolysis is a rare condition that presents with widespread skeletal muscle breakdown and release of metabolites into the circulation, resulting in myalgias and acute kidney injury. In this article, we report a rare case of rhabdomyolysis following the ingestion of a large quantity of diphenhydramine for a suicide attempt, who also presented with significantly elevated creatine kinase and acute renal injury. To our knowledge, this is the first case report of diphenhydramine rhabdomyolysis with MRI findings' correlation.

Keywords: Diphenhydramine; Drug overdose; MRI; Magnetic resonance imaging; Rhabdomyolysis.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Ethics approval: The authors confirm that the ethical policies of the journal, as noted on the journal’s author guidelines page, have been adhered to and the appropriate ethical review committee approval has been received. Consent to participate: Not applicable. Consent for publication: Not applicable. Conflict of interest: AC receives royalties from Jaypee and Wolters. AC also serves as a consultant with ICON Medical and Treace Medical Concepts, Inc. AC is a speaker for Telemedicine clinics. AC is a medical advisor and has a research grant from ImageBiopsy Lab Inc. The authors do not report any conflict of interest.

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