The increase in calls involving adolescents stayed above baseline for more than 25 days after the online spike.
Researchers compared US poison-center call data with estimated online mentions of the Benadryl Challenge from July 1 through December 31, 2020. The challenge involves filming the ingestion of large doses of diphenhydramine, the active ingredient in Benadryl.
The analysis found that a rise in online mentions was followed by a significant increase in adolescent-only diphenhydramine-related calls. Call volume stayed consistently above its baseline for more than 25 days after the online spike.
The researchers found a reciprocal relationship between poison-center call volume and online mentions. Increases in all diphenhydramine-related calls consistently predicted increases in web mentions, but that relationship was not statistically significant. By contrast, the first increase in online mentions was followed by a statistically significant increase in calls involving adolescents. Those calls remained elevated above baseline for more than 25 days after the web-mention spike.
The findings suggest that monitoring online mentions of the Benadryl Challenge could provide an early warning of increased demand related to diphenhydramine exposures, particularly among adolescents. The authors say these relationships could inform emergency services, healthcare facilities and public health efforts, including timely education intended to prevent harm.
This was a correlation study using poison-center data from the National Poison Data System and estimated online mentions from the RADARS Web Monitoring Program. The analysis covered July through December 2020 and included online platforms, blogs, forums and news websites. Because the study examined relationships between trends rather than assigning an intervention, it does not establish that online mentions caused the later increase in calls. The abstract does not report the total number of calls or online mentions.
Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety · 2026 · DOI: 10.1002/pds.70469
Authors: Jacob Altholz, Hannah St. Francis, Christopher Hoyte
Institutions: Kaiser Permanente San Francisco Medical Center, Washington Poison Center
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