“Benadryl Challenge”: Viral challenge continues to claim lives

NEW YORK (HealthDay News)—Teens and young adults continue to self-harm as part of a social media challenge that's now five years old.

The Benadryl Challenge, which began in 2020 on TikTok, has spread to other social media platforms and is still being attempted by daredevil young people, according to participating researchers at the American Academy of Pediatrics in Denver.

The challenge challenges viewers to take large doses of over-the-counter allergy medications containing diphenhydramine. They must then fight the drowsiness caused by the drugs to experience intoxication and hallucinations.

But diphenhydramine overdoses can also lead to dangerous heart rhythm abnormalities, seizures, coma, and even death, researchers warn.

Through 2024, diphenhydramine overdose cases continued to rise and fall as the Benadryl Challenge circulated on social media, the experts added.

“The fact that we continue to see spikes in harmful diphenhydramine use years after the challenge first went viral shows how powerful and dangerous social media trends can be,” said researcher Noelia Swymeler, a pediatric resident physician at the University of Oklahoma College of Community Medicine in Tulsa, in a news release.

Earlier this month, a South Carolina teenager nearly overdosed on Benadryl while trying to get high, according to WMBF News. The girl suffered hallucinations and her heart rate jumped to nearly 200 beats per minute.

The 13-year-old girl told doctors that a friend told her she could get high if she took enough Benadryl, according to her mother.

“I saw all the different TikToks I’d been watching,” the anonymous mother told WMBF. “They were all kids taking Benadryl, and it blew my mind. I thought it was a safe medication. It’s not something a teenager would get into.”

In the study, researchers tracked reports to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Adverse Event Reporting System for diphenhydramine between 2013 and 2024. The team focused on reports involving children and young adults between 10 and 25 years of age.

May 2020 marked the emergence of the challenge with the first related hospitalization, researchers said.

Later that year, the FDA issued a warning about Benadryl Challenge, urging parents and caregivers to lock up diphenhydramine to prevent misuse by teens.

Researchers found a total of 413 reports, with 2020 and 2023 having the highest counts, 73 and 62.

Case reports exceeded expected levels at odd intervals, including July 2020, December 2020, July 2021, February 2023, May 2023, January 2024, and June 2024, showing how such a challenge can resurface again and again on social media.

A 13-year-old Ohio boy died in April 2023 while participating in the challenge with friends at his home, according to CNN. Jacob Stevens fell into a coma after a Benadryl overdose and was on a ventilator for a week before dying.

“This research highlights the need for better education, stronger safeguards, and ongoing awareness to prevent teens from being harmed by medications they can easily find in their own homes,” Dr. Swymeler said.

Findings presented at medical meetings should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.