This is a really exciting time for research into overdose in general and naloxone in particular. 15 papers this time.
Walley AY, Xuan Z, Hackman HH,
Quinn E, Doe-Simkins M, Sorensen-Alawad A, Ruiz S, Ozonoff A.
BMJ. 2013 Jan 30;346:f174. doi:
10.1136/bmj.f174.
Comments: A long-awaited paper for which the authors deserve high praise, as they have produced the first real evidence of naloxone effectiveness and arguably the most
important contribution to naloxone literature to-date. Although not randomized,
the interrupted time series analysis is respectable and the results are
impressive.
Coffin PO,
Sullivan SD.
Ann Intern
Med. 2013 Jan 1;158(1):1-9. doi: 10.7326/0003-4819-158-1-201301010-00003.
Comments: I’ve wanted to write this paper for
about a decade, when I thought about cost-effectiveness as three to four
calculations on the back of a napkin, rather than years of work and RAM-straining matrices. There’s a long way to go with overdose
research that will certainly contribute to future iterations of the model. In
the meantime, this is probably a fair, if quite conservative, initial estimate. There is one sensitivity analysis – in which naloxone
results in behavior change such that overdose risk is lower – which I suspect may be closer to the actual truth.
Ann Intern Med. 2013 Jan
1;158(1):I-30. doi: 10.7326/0003-4819-158-1-201301010-00001. No abstract
available.
Comments: An excellent editorial from our
colleagues at NIDA and the FDA.
Bohnert AS,
Eisenberg A, Whiteside L, Price A, McCabe SE, Ilgen MA.
Addict
Behav. 2012 Nov 23;38(3):1776-1781. doi: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2012.11.005. [Epub
ahead of print]
Comments: Survey of prescription opioid use
among treatment program patients. Use for reasons other than pain relief was
associated with overdose as well as use of several other agents that increase
the risk of overdose.
