The toll of the opioid epidemic is often derived from toxicology reports. These rely on drug tests. A medical historian explains these tests and how they fall short of capturing why people are dying.
Academic rigour, journalistic flair
Articles on naloxone
Displaying all articles
Naloxone programmes have sprung up in the UK and elsewhere, but drug death rates keep climbing.
There are proven ways to reduce drug deaths. Unfortunately, the UK government is not implementing them.
One study argues that naloxone increases opioid use because it protects against death from overdose. But a closer analysis shows Narcan is the number one public health tool to fight the overdose epidemic.
Opioids kill 100 people each day in the US, more than vehicular accidents. Those addicted are often left without treatment. An addiction researcher offers six steps to address the epidemic.
Catastrophic increases in opioid overdose deaths across Canada require a broad response -- tackling housing, food and income insecurity as well as the contaminated drug supply.
Opioids kill an average of eight people every day in Canada. The federal government must officially declare this a 'public welfare emergency' and invest the funds critical to a humane response.
The number of people dying from opioid overdose continues to rise, in part because of cheap street drugs. Yet the price of a drug used to treat addiction is out of reach for many.
Carfentanil is an ultra-potent synthetic opioid. Its only legitimate use is in veterinary practice for large animals such as elephants, but it sneaks into heroin shipments to increase its potency.
Opiates have emerged as a significant threat to public health in the UK.
Naloxone is used as an "antidote" for opioid overdose which includes heroin, and opioid pain medicines such as morphine, fentanyl and codeine.
It is thought that in 2002 fentanyl, or a drug based on fentanyl, was used by Russian special forces to disable Chechen rebels after a four day stand off in the Dubrovka theatre in Moscow.
The Senate passed a bill July 13 to address the opioid epidemic. Georgia recently passed a bill that would limit rather than expand the number of treatment centers. Could others follow suit?
Have you ever wondered how the small white ibuprofen pill turns off your headache? Or how a regular antidepressant keeps your brain chemistry in balance?
Naloxone, commonly known as Narcan, is a medicine that temporarily reverses the effects of opioid drugs such as heroin, morphine and oxycodone.
Many first responders’ – even some university police officers – are carrying a new tool in their first-aid kits. It’s naloxone, the opioid overdose antidote drug, and today it’s more widely available than…
It’s now almost two years since ACT chief minister and minister for health, Katy Gallagher, launched Australia’s first program to distribute naloxone to prevent heroin overdoses. Other states have followed…
Top contributors
-
Professor and Director, National Drug Research Institute, Curtin University
-
Associate Professor, University of York
-
Emeritus Consultant, St Vincent's Hospital, Darlinghurst
-
Professor of Pharmacology, University of Sydney
-
Senior Research Fellow, UNSW
-
Nial Wheate is a Friend of The Conversation.
Associate Professor | Program Director, Undergraduate Pharmacy, University of Sydney
-
Professor of Emergency Medicine and Community Health Sciences, Boston University
-
Emergency Medicine Consultant, Australian National University
-
Head of Alcohol and other Drug Research, Centre for Population Health; Burnet Principal for Alcohol, other drugs and harm reduction, Burnet Institute
-
Lecturer in Crimimology and Social Policy, Loughborough University
-
Professor of Public Health, Georgia State University
-
Professor of Intellectual Property, University of California, Hastings
-
Senior Research Fellow, School of Health and Life Sciences, Glasgow Caledonian University
-
Professor in Criminal Justice and Faculty Director of Public Engagement, University of Kent
-
Research Associate at the BC Centre on Substance Use and Doctoral Candidate in Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia
