NBME 23 Answers : Block 1 : #48 = A 20-year-old man is brought to the emergency ...

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submitted by mousie(84),

Why no sweating? I mean I get Ecstasy is probably the drug of choice before an all night dance party (lol) but don't understand why there would be cold extremities and no sweating when is FA it says hyperthermia and rhabdo????

sympathetikey FA says, "euphoria, disinhibition, hyperactivity, distorted sensory and time perception, bruxism. Lifethreatening effects include hypertension, tachycardia, hyperthermia, hyponatremia, serotonin syndrome." So I think they wanted you to see Sinus Tachy and jump for MDMA. Idk why Ketamine couldn't also potentially be correct though. +2

amorah I picked ketamine because it said no diaphoresis. But if you need to find a reason, I guess the half life of ketamine might rule it out. Remember from sketchy, ketamine is used for anaesthesia induction, so probably won't keep the HR and BP high for 8 hrs. In fact, its action is ~10-15 mins-ish iv. +2

yotsubato Because the NBME is full of fuckers. The guy is probably dehydrated so he cant sweat anymore? +2

fulminant_life you wouldnt see tachycardia with ketamine. It causes cardiovascular depression but honestly i saw " all-night dance party" picked the mdma answer and moved on lol +3

monkd Ketamine acts as a sympathomimetic but oh well. NBME hasn't caught on to ketamine as a drug of recreation :) +

usmleuser007 Why not LSD? +

d_holles @usmleuser007 LSD doesn't cause HTN and ↑ HR. +

sbryant6 @fulminant_life FALSE. KETAMINE CAUSES CARDIOVASCULAR STIMULATION. +1

dashou19 Take a look at why the patient has pale and cold extremities. "Mechanistic clinical studies indicate that the MDMA-induced elevations in body temperature in humans partially depend on the MDMA-induced release of norepinephrine and involve enhanced metabolic heat generation and cutaneous vasoconstriction, resulting in impaired heat dissipation." https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5008716/ +