Cathartic Information & Cathartic Links at HealthHaven.com

	Part of a series on
Toxicology and poison
	Toxicology (Forensic) · Toxinology · History of poison
Concepts
	Poison · Venom · Toxicant (Toxin) · Acceptable daily intake · Acute toxicity · Bioaccumulation · Biomagnification · Fixed Dose Procedure · LD50 · Lethal dose · Toxic capacity · Toxicity Class
Treatments
	Antidote · Gastric lavage · Whole bowel irrigation · Activated carbon · Cathartic · Hemodialysis · Chelation therapy · Hemoperfusion
Incidents
	Bradford · Minamata · Niigata; Alexander Litvinenko · Bhopal · 2007 pet food recalls · Seveso disaster · List of poisonings
Related topics
	Hazard symbol · Carcinogen; Mutagen · List of Extremely Hazardous Substances · Biological warfare · Food safety This box: view • talk • edit

For other uses, see Catharsis (disambiguation).

In medicine, a cathartic is a substance which accelerates defecation.

This is in contrast to a laxative, which is a substance which eases defecation, usually by softening the stool.^[1] It is possible for a substance to be both a laxative and a cathartic. However, agents such as psyllium seed husks increase the bulk of the stool.^[2]

Cathartics such as sorbitol are sometimes used in response to poisoning.

Cathartics were used in the Fort Lewis, WA area in the influenza epidemic of 1918. An original report by Elizabeth J. Davies, a public heath nurse, mentions cathartics, pneumonia jackets and copious amount of drinks as treatments for influenza patients.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Cathartic at eMedicine Dictionary

This medical article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

[0] MeSH Cathartics

[1] The MSDS HyperGlossary: Catharsis

[1]

[2]