UPDATED 9/25, 10:40 a.m. ET: On Thursday—a full three weeks after the report below, itself describing a phenomenon first witnessed in spring 2020—the FDA issued an official warning about the Benadryl challenge. "We are investigating these reports and conducting a review to determine if additional cases have been reported," the agency stated, adding that it has "strongly urged" TikTok to pull any such videos and to watch out for more.
"Health care professionals should be aware that the 'Benadryl Challenge' is occurring among teens and alert their caregivers about it,” the FDA added.
Asked by the Hill, a TikTok spokesperson said they haven’t seen the challenge and that the platform "actively remove[s] content that violates our guidelines and block related hashtags to further discourage participation."
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Parents might have thought Tide Pods were the lowest of the low, but things have seems to have hit a new extreme.
Johnson & Johnson is urging parents to be mindful of a BenadrylTikTok challenge that has resulted in at least one death and several hospitalizations. The viral challenge pushes participants to take enough of the over-the-counter allergy medicine that they start to hallucinate and then post their experience on TikTok. On Friday, the local NBC affiliate reported that a 15-year-old girl died after participating in the challenge.
"The dose that can cause a hallucination is very close to the dose that can cause something potentially life-threatening," said the director of the Oklahoma Center for Poison and Drug Information, Scott Schaeffer. He went on to explain that ingesting large doses of Benadryl can result in seizures and serious heart problems. Educators are now working with parents to raise awareness about this dangerous fad.
"Parents need to know what their kids are doing on these social platforms. It may be a hard discussion, but you can get in and out," KFOR digital content editor Kari King said. "Just understand that they need to be skeptical of what they see online, and do not try anything that’s dangerous."
Along with the unnamed teen's death, the Benadryl challenge led to at least three teens in Fort Worth, Texas being hospitalized in May, leading the antihistamine's maker to express concern.
"The Benadryl TikTok trend is extremely concerning, dangerous and should be stopped immediately," Johnson & Johnson said in a statement to TooFab. "We are working with TikTok and our partners to do what we can to stop this dangerous trend, including the removal of content across social platforms that showcase this behavior."
