Severe hypokalaemia from kaolin and morphine abuse.

A 34 year old man, registered disabled as a result of muscle weakness, was admitted to hospital because of increasing weakness. He had profound hypokalaemia and admitted to taking up to 1400 ml of kaolin and morphine mixture daily. After considerable potassium replacement muscle power recovered completely. The hypokalaemia is likely to have been caused by the combination of liquorice extract and sodium bicarbonate in kaolin and morphine.