Antidote, derived from the Greek antidoton where anti is a prefix that means against and doton means given. Therefore we can think of an antidote as being working against what has already been given. A more contemporary definition would be a remedy or other agent used to neutralize or counteract the effects of a poison or other deleterious agent.

There is a popular misconception that there is an antidote for every poison, whereas there are actually relatively few classes of toxins that have antidotes. In the table below some of the more common antidotes have been listed.

See also

High-alert medications

References

1. The Free Dictionary, antidotes, http://www.thefreedictionary.com/antidotes