Magic Antidote: Difference between revisions

Line 14:

If worst comes to worst, [[Hand Wave]] it with [[The Power of Love]].

Compare to [[Instant Sedation]]. See also [[CPR Clean Pretty Reliable]].

Compare to [[Instant Sedation]]. See also [[CPR: Clean, Pretty, Reliable]].

Almost always the finale of [[Find the Cure]] episodes.

== Anime & Manga ==

Line 68:

* In ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'', Angel is approaching his final moments due to a nasty poison, yet he was still able to pick up an unconscious Buffy and carry her to a hospital immediately after getting the antidote. Of course, he's already dead, so it's not clear what kind of damage the poison was doing in the first place. It's explicitly a magical poison, and the antidote, a Slayer's blood, doesn't cure him so much as magically eradicate it.

* Handwaved in ''[[Andromeda]]'' by saying it was his unique physiology that made the cure work so fast. Reasonable enough because, the same physiology also made the disease work faster than usual.

* ''[[~~Doctor Who (TV)|~~Doctor Who]]'', "The Christmas Invasion". One minute he's sick enough to only have [[Bizarre Alien Biology|one heartbeat]], and the next he's [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|sword fighting]] the leader of an alien invasion force. The fact that the cure is apparently ''[[Spot of Tea|tea]]'' is just the icing on the weirdness cake.

* ''[[Doctor Who]]'', "The Christmas Invasion". One minute he's sick enough to only have [[Bizarre Alien Biology|one heartbeat]], and the next he's [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|sword fighting]] the leader of an alien invasion force. The fact that the cure is apparently ''[[Spot of Tea|tea]]'' is just the icing on the weirdness cake.

** Are you saying tea ''isn't'' supposed to be a [[Magic Antidote]]?! At any rate, maybe he'd just finally got enough rest. As for the antibiotic in "New Earth"... apparently the slightest exposure to antibiotic turns staggering sacks of disease into peaky but fairly healthy people in an instant. That's Who soft science for you.

*** Tea also provided the fix for Craig's encounter with the "rot" in ''The Lodger''. From what sense can be made of the Doctor's mutterings, the (very strong) tea enhanced some natural process that was fighting the infection, and if Craig had touched the mold more than the tiniest amount, he'd be done for.

Line 104:

== Real Life ==

* [~~http~~:~~//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/~~Naloxone Naloxone, a/k/a Narcan] is a more or less instant antidote for opioid overdose; given intravenously, it takes effect in less than a minute and completely reverses the effects of heroin, morphine, codeine, fentanyl, and all the derivatives thereof. However, it does nothing against anything else the patient might have dosed themselves with (benzodiazepines, such as Valium, and barbiturates, such as Seconal, are commonly cross-abused with opioids, and Narcan will not treat an overdose of these), and it tends to wear off before the drugs do (necessitating a re-dose or even an intravenous drip of the stuff while you wait for the drugs to clear out). Other possible drawbacks include nausea, diarrhea, hypotension (low blood pressure), and the patient instantly going from [[Only Mostly Dead|unconscious and apneic]] to wide awake, stone cold sober, and [[Unstoppable Rage|very much aware that the emergency services staff just ruined their very expensive hit.]]

* [[wikipedia:Naloxone|Naloxone, a/k/a Narcan]] is a more or less instant antidote for opioid overdose; given intravenously, it takes effect in less than a minute and completely reverses the effects of heroin, morphine, codeine, fentanyl, and all the derivatives thereof. However, it does nothing against anything else the patient might have dosed themselves with (benzodiazepines, such as Valium, and barbiturates, such as Seconal, are commonly cross-abused with opioids, and Narcan will not treat an overdose of these), and it tends to wear off before the drugs do (necessitating a re-dose or even an intravenous drip of the stuff while you wait for the drugs to clear out). Other possible drawbacks include nausea, diarrhea, hypotension (low blood pressure), and the patient instantly going from [[Only Mostly Dead|unconscious and apneic]] to wide awake, stone cold sober, and [[Unstoppable Rage|very much aware that the emergency services staff just ruined their very expensive hit.]]

* For a while Penicillin looked like it might be this. During WWII, a shot of penicillin would clear up an normally fatal infection and return the soldier back to fighting shape in a about a day. Of course, the rise of antibiotic resistance made sure it did not stay that way for long.

* Insulin functions like this against Type I (insulin dependent) diabetes. The three scientists who discovered it used a crude extract of it on a ward of fifty patients who had become comatose due to hyperglycemia. By the time they were injecting the last patients, the first patients were already coming out of their comas.

* Adaptogens are more or less a low-grade version of this. Not an instant-acting panacea without any contradictions, but they act via very low-level and thus universal mechanisms that either counteract or compensate for lots of unrelated highly toxic substances. Enough to make a difference in some cases as big as 2x improvement in LD<sub>50</sub> or five times quicker recovery.

* The [[Placebo Effect]] plays a part in Real Life examples mild enough to be believable. Where no irreparable damage has taken place, administration of a curative (or believed curative) relieves the distress of the symptoms enough to function as if they were already gone.

* Good old [~~http://en.~~wikipedia~~.org/wiki/~~Aspirin Aspirin]. It's one of mankind's oldest and simplest medicines, but the uses to which it can be put are quite startling, with new ones being found on an almost monthly basis. Notable examples include prevention against lots of clot-related diseases, including heart attack, deep venous thrombosis, and stroke.

* Good old [[wikipedia:Aspirin|Aspirin]]. It's one of mankind's oldest and simplest medicines, but the uses to which it can be put are quite startling, with new ones being found on an almost monthly basis. Notable examples include prevention against lots of clot-related diseases, including heart attack, deep venous thrombosis, and stroke.

** This month's new use: [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-15475553 Bowel cancer treatment]

* Magnesium sulfate is one of the only effective treatments for a specific arrhythmia, ''torsades de pointes'' (a very nasty form of ventricular fibrillation that isn't responsive to the usual combo of [[CPR Clean Pretty Reliable]] and [[Magical Defibrillator]] treatment). It's also quite handy for rapidly breaking severe asthma attacks, as well as stopping premature labor and seizures in eclampsia.

* Magnesium sulfate is one of the only effective treatments for a specific arrhythmia, ''torsades de pointes'' (a very nasty form of ventricular fibrillation that isn't responsive to the usual combo of [[CPR: Clean, Pretty, Reliable]] and [[Magical Defibrillator]] treatment). It's also quite handy for rapidly breaking severe asthma attacks, as well as stopping premature labor and seizures in eclampsia.

* TPA, a powerful decoagulant, can (in fortunate cases) reverse many of the effects of a stroke remarkably quickly, by breaking up the clot in the brain. However, in order to have this effect, it has to be given within 3 or 4 hours of the stroke. Also, it is risky and not appropriate for everyone, and some strokes are caused by bleeding not clotting, in which case TPA would be fatal.

Line 121:

[[Category:Orphaned/Sandbox/Pharmacology Tropes]]

[[Category:Magic Antidote]]

[[Category:Trope]]