Overview
- This week a 15-year-old Oklahoma girl, Leah Presson, was hospitalized after an apparent attempt at the Benadryl Challenge and her family reported she now shows no measurable brain activity.
- A health advisory confirmed calls to poison centers for teenage diphenhydramine incidents were more than double in the first five months of 2026 compared with the same period last year.
- Regional hospitals have reported clusters of cases this year, including multiple emergency visits at Rady Children’s in San Diego and more than 100 visits at Fort Worth Children’s Hospital over six months, and Connecticut officials linked three recent child deaths to overdoses.
- Doctors say the doses teens seek to induce hallucinations are close to levels that produce an anticholinergic toxidrome, which can trigger seizures, dangerous heart rhythms, respiratory failure, coma, or death, and they urge parents to lock up medicines and call Poison Control at 1-800-222-1222 for suspected overdoses.
- Platforms such as TikTok have blocked direct searches for the challenge but teens can evade filters with misspellings or private shares, so public-health groups and pediatricians are expanding warnings, school outreach, and parental guidance.