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Neill F. David, MD
Rockport, Md

JAMA. 1975;231(8):809.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.—

The EDITORIAL by Dr. Hussey, "Drug Automatism: A Myth," (230:265, 1974) is partly right and partly wrong. Therefore, I believe that the editorial was mistitled. For example, if "a patient takes a dose of a barbiturate, forgets about it, takes another dose, and so on," the patient will usually, but not always, fall asleep and be none the worse for his mistake. However, before he falls asleep, he will be groggy. He may stumble and fall, thereby suffering serious injury. Or, if he smokes cigarettes while in bed, there is the danger that he will ignite the bed covers and be badly or lethally burned.

It is true, as Dr. Hussey wisely explained, that although drug automatism does not cause death directly, the drug experience can be lethal by other means. That's no myth; it's for real. . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Footnotes
Edited by John D. Archer, MD, Senior Editor.

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