Identifying gaps in the implementation of naloxone programs for laypersons in the United States

The opioid epidemic in the United States (US) continues to generate significant increases in morbidity and mortality with no sign of decline. In 2014, the drug overdose mortality rate was 14.7 per 100,000 (Rudd, Aleshire, Zibbell,& Gladden, 2016), and the age-adjusted opioid overdose mortality rate rose nearly 200% from 2000 to 2014 (Rudd, Aleshire et al., 2016). Opioid-involved overdose deaths increased another 16% from 2014 to 2015, fueled by an increase in deaths involving heroin and illicitly-made fentanyl (Rudd, Seth, David,& Scholl, 2016) – a synthetic opioid 25–50 times more potent than heroin (NIDA/NIH/USDHSS, 2016).

Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - December 9, 2017 Category: Addiction Authors: Barrot H. Lambdin, Jon Zibbell, Eliza Wheeler, Alex H. Kral Tags: Short Report Source Type: research