PubMed Update March/April 2014

Better late than never, right? 24 papers over two months.

1) Overdose rescues by trained and untrained participants and change in opioid use among substance-using participants in overdose education and naloxone distribution programs: a retrospective cohort study.

Doe-Simkins M, Quinn E, Xuan Z, Sorensen-Alawad A, Hackman H, Ozonoff A, Walley AY.

BMC Public Health. 2014 Apr 1;14(1):297. [Epub ahead of print]

Comments: Sometimes naloxone is used by bystanders who have not been formally educated (or “trained”) in administering naloxone. This innovative analysis suggests that the untrained witness does a good job in lay naloxone administration.

2) Easy-to-use overdose antidote earns fast-track approval.

Kuehn BM.

JAMA. 2014 Apr 23-30;311(16):1600. doi: 10.1001/jama.2014.4483. No abstract available.

Comments: The naloxone auto-injector – Evzio – has been approved and is expected to be available this summer.

3) Research gaps on methadone harms and comparative harms: findings from a review of the evidence for an american pain society and college on problems of drug dependence clinical practice guideline.

Weimer MB, Chou R.

J Pain. 2014 Apr;15(4):366-76. doi: 10.1016/j.jpain.2014.01.496.

Comments: Basic summary is that it’s not entirely clear why there was such a surge in methadone-related deaths in the early part of the 2000s. It’s important to remember that the surge came after a surge in oxycontin-related deaths, when many payers shifted their preferred agent from oxycontin to methadone. Mortality data seems to follow the trend of the most prescribed agent.

4) Paramedic-supplied 'Take Home' Naloxone: protocol for cluster randomised feasibility study.

Moore C, Lloyd G, Oretti R, Russell I, Snooks H.

BMJ Open. 2014 Mar 20;4(3):e004712. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2013-004712.

Comments: Outstanding, innovative design to reach those at very high risk of future overdose events. I anxiously await results.