Tuesday, May 27, 2014

PubMed Update March/April 2014

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


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.

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.

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.