An increase in per-patient naloxone requirements in an opioid epidemic

To the Editor, Prescription opioid overdose deaths have been on the rise since 1999, and deaths due to heroin overdoses increased dramatically beginning in 2010 [1,2]. The rapid increase in opioid overdoses and number of patients requiring treatment in our region suggests that hospitals should consi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The American journal of emergency medicine 2017-12, Vol.35 (12), p.1958-1959
Main Authors: Birmingham, Lauren E., PhDc, MA, Nielson, Jeffrey A., MD
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Disease control
Disease prevention
Drug dosages
Drug overdose
Emergency
Emergency medical care
Epidemics
Fatalities
Heroin
Morbidity
Mortality
Naloxone
Narcotics
Opioid epidemic
Opioids
Outbreaks
Overdose
Patients
Poisoning
Prevention
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Summary:To the Editor, Prescription opioid overdose deaths have been on the rise since 1999, and deaths due to heroin overdoses increased dramatically beginning in 2010 [1,2]. The rapid increase in opioid overdoses and number of patients requiring treatment in our region suggests that hospitals should consider stocking larger quantities of naloxone and nasal atomizers. Improved prevention and treatment strategies are needed to mitigate deadly this outbreak. 1 R.A. Rudd, Increases in heroin overdose deaths-28 states, 2010 to 2012, Morbidity and mortality weekly report, 2014, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 849-854 2 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), QuickStats: rates of deaths from drug poisoning and drug poisoning involving opioid analgesics-United States, 1999-2013, Morbidity and mortality weekly report, 2015, CDC 3 S.N. Lucyk, L.S. Nelson, Novel synthetic opioids: an opioid epidemic within an opioid epidemic, Ann Emerg Med, Vol. 69, 2016, 91-93 4 S. Nelson, Aug 25 2016, USA TODAY 5 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Increases in fentanyl drug confiscations and fentanyl-related overdose fatalities, 2015, Health Alert Network, Available from:, accessed 4-22-17 6 R. Gupta, N.D. Shah, J.S. Ross, The rising price of naloxone-risks to efforts to stem overdose deaths, N Engl J Med, Vol. 375, Iss. 23, 2016, 2213-2215
ISSN:0735-6757
1532-8171
DOI:10.1016/j.ajem.2017.05.033