(PressMediaWire) New Haven, Conn. — Drug users can be taught to
identify and quickly respond to overdoses of heroin or other opioids as
effectively as medical experts, a Yale University study suggests.
The study supports efforts of some drug counselors, physicians and
public health experts who have started community-based programs to
train addicts and supply them with the opioid antagonist drug naloxone
in order to respond to potentially fatal drug overdoses.
Naxolone, a medication lacking in abuse potential and routinely used
by emergency medical personnel to treat heroin and other opioid
overdoses, can be administered by a simple muscular injection. The drug
temporarily combats effects of an overdose until medical help can
arrive. Critics of such a harm-reduction strategy, however, have
questioned whether drug users have the ability to recognize an overdose
and can properly administer the drug. This study, recently published in
the early online edition of the journal Addiction, suggests this
concern is unwarranted.
“You have to keep people alive long enough to get access to drug
treatment for their addiction,’’ said Traci Craig Green, a doctoral
candidate in the Yale School of Public Health and lead author of the
research “You can’t treat a dead person.”
Ten individuals who were regular users of heroin or other opioid
drugs such as oxycodone or hydromorphone were enrolled in the study at
each of six sites across the United States. They were divided into two
groups, one with members who had previously received training in
overdose response and one with members who had not. Individuals were
interviewed to determine if they could recognize signs of opioid
overdose and when it was appropriate to administer naloxone. Their
responses were then compared to those given by a group of medical
experts.
The training, conducted well before the interviews were done,
included recognizing differences between overdoses caused by opioids
and those caused by other substances such as cocaine, for which use of
the drug naloxone is not indicated.
“The study shows opioid users with training can spot an opioid
overdose, are less likely to miss true opioid overdoses, and can
determine whether naloxone should be administered and when it should
not be administered," Green said.
The study was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health.
Other authors included Robert Heimer and Lauretta E. Grau from the
school of public health.
SOURCE: Yale University
