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We developed recommendations for antidote stocking at hospitals that provide emergency care.An expert panel representing diverse perspectives (clinical pharmacology, clinical toxicology, critical care medicine, clinical pharmacy, emergency medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, poison centers, pulmonary medicine, and hospital accreditation) was formed to create recommendations for antidote stocking. Using a standardized summary of the medical literature, the primary reviewer for each antidote proposed guidelines for antidote stocking to the full panel. The panel used a formal iterative process to reach their recommendation for the quantity of an antidote that should be stocked and the acceptable period for delivery of each antidote.The panel recommended consideration of 24 antidotes for stocking. The panel recommended that 12 of the antidotes be available for immediate administration on patient arrival. In most hospitals, this period requires that the antidote be stocked in the emergency department. Another 9 antidotes were recommended for availability within 1 hour of the decision to administer, allowing the antidote to be stocked in the hospital pharmacy if the hospital has a mechanism for prompt delivery of antidotes. The panel identified additional antidotes that should be stocked by the hospital but are not usually needed within the first hour of treatment. The panel recommended that each hospital perform a formal antidote hazard vulnerability assessment to determine the need for antidote stocking in that hospital.The antidote expert recommendations provide a tool to be used in creating practices for appropriate and adequate antidote stocking in hospitals that provide emergency care.

To the Editor.— Recently, a 26-month-old female child was brought into our emergency service by her mother who claimed that the child had "bugs." An extensive search for head lice, scabies, or any other evidence of infestation revealed nothing. When the mother was questioned again about where the bugs were, she pointed to the child's skin and tried to demonstrate that she too had them, by vigorously "rubbing" them out of her palms and forearms, again to no avail. It was then noticed that the mother was slightly tremulous and diaphoretic while obviously intensely concerned about the "bugs."