At least fifteen Mexican students were hospitalized after doing the ‘calming challenge’ while taking clonazepam

More than a dozen teenagers have been hospitalized in Mexico after copying a dangerous trend on the internet that involves taking tranquilizers and fighting against sleep. The game, called “Whoever falls asleep last wins,” consists of consuming controlled drugs that induce sleep and trying to stay awake for as long as possible.

On January 25, the Mexican Federal Commission for Protection against Sanitary Risks (Cofepris) alerted young people to the risk involved in a challenge that has gone viral on the TikTok platform.

The “tranquilizer challenge,” which has gone viral in Mexico, typically sees people take the sedative clonazepam, a seizure and anxiety medication. It comes weeks after a report of eight students in the capital Mexico City falling ill from clonazepam abuse, and three more cases in the northern city of Monterrey.

Guayaquil has also been alerted to the challenge that already affects several adolescents with clonazepam.

“My son slept 14 hours, was sleepy and even vomited”: children and young people in Guayaquil affected by consuming clonazepam to meet a viral challenge on social networks

The students would use the drug, a controlled benzodiazepine similar to Xanax, and see who could stay awake the longest despite the drowsy side effect it causes. The trend emerged on social media, with officials asking parents to monitor their young children’s use of these websites.

Mexican authorities first warned about the challenge on January 25, a week after students fell ill in Mexico City. All sick children are believed to be in fifth or sixth grade. This means that they are all likely to be between the ages of 10 and 12. There is no information available on the current condition of these students. A prescription is required to obtain clonazepam, marketed under Rivotril south of the border in Mexico.

But officials fear the children may have been able to buy the drugs without a prescription and have warned stores not to illegally sell the controlled substance. Clonazepam works by slowing down a person’s central nervous system, allowing them to relax. Its strongest common side effect is severe drowsiness, but if someone uses too much, it can lead to an irregular heartbeat, chest pain, low blood pressure, seizures, and shortness of breath.

The most severe cases can lead to coma or death, as a person’s breathing slows so much that it causes damage to the brain. Like other benzodiazepines, clonazepam is highly addictive. A person can become dependent on it after only a few weeks of use.

It is currently unclear how much of the medication was taken by the hospitalized children. Clonazepam doses are calculated by weight, and young children may have overdosed if they took adult-sized amounts. Fears about these kinds of challenges and the other harms of social media for young people around the world have some top officials calling for strong action.

Social networks negatively influence young people

Over the weekend, Dr. Vivek Murthy, the United States Surgeon General, called on parents not to allow children under the age of 16 to access these platforms completely unsupervised.

Murthy told CNN that children under the age of 16 should not be allowed to use social media. “I think 13 years is too soon,” she said. “And I think it’s a time, early adolescence, where kids are developing their identity, their sense of self… And the skewed, distorted environment of social media hurts a lot of kids.” In addition to the risk of prompting children to engage in dangerous activities such as the ‘calm down challenge’, studies have also linked social media use to poor mental health. A 2020 report by researchers at Johns Hopkins University linked the rise in adolescent mental health problems in the 2000s with the advent of social media.

Another Johns Hopkins team found in 2019 that students who spend more than three hours a day on social media platforms show more significant risks for serious mental health problems. Researchers found a strong link between time spent on social media and the likelihood of developing depression by looking at more than two dozen studies. (YO)