# Subcutaneous injection of oxygen as a deterrent?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subcutaneous-injection-of-oxygen-as-a-deterrent/460611>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 19, 2008, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subcutaneous-injection-of-oxygen-as-a-deterrent/460611 "2008-08-19T23:13:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![groman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/73ab20/32.png) [@groman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/groman)\
**Post date:** [August 19, 2008, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subcutaneous-injection-of-oxygen-as-a-deterrent/460611/1 "2008-08-19T23:13:51Z")

</div>

Hello Dopers,

So a Russian friend of mine asked me what a certain drug addiction treatment procedure is called. He described it as injection of oxygen under the skin to form large painful bubbles for the purpose of aversion… 😕 Since it made no sense, I Googled it and found a 1914 paper on the subject of treating trench foot, but it was lacking in details.

Then, my friend sent me a cite. :eek: It’s an ad for a drug and alcohol addiction treatment center and the description of this procedure seems inhuman and pointless: [the cite (in Russian)](http://sferamed.ru/doc5.shtml)

My attempt at translation of the relevant part

> [@](#):
>
> …when treating patients suffering from lysergic psychoses, additionally antipsychotics and niacin are indicated. For preventing [collapse inducing] conditions after termination of narcotic substances, recommendation is coramine, subcutaneous injection of oxygen ( **500-600ml per 24 hours** ) for 1 to 2 weeks. If [collapse] develops – caffeine, phenylephrine, etc…

I am not a medical professional so my ability to translate this is limited so I have no idea what the hell they were referring to by collapse. Syncope just doesn’t doesn’t seem to fit.

Anyway, Googling around the Russian internet, there seems to be indeed quite a few references to this type of procedure … as a deterrent, of some sort. 😕 I realize I’ve been out of touch with realities of Russian life for a long time, but this seems to make no damn sense.

So I am asking dopers, and specifically doper doctors – does this make any sense or is this some elaborate hoax? Wouldn’t subcutaneous oxygen in those amounts be potentially lethal? How would it work as a deterrent? Of what? Why?

Best regards,

Yuriy

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![BrandonR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@BrandonR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrandonR)\
**Post date:** [August 19, 2008, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subcutaneous-injection-of-oxygen-as-a-deterrent/460611/2 "2008-08-19T23:43:09Z")

</div>

I’m thinking they got the idea from [here](http://www.waspknife.com/video_watermelon.php).