We’ve all seen the videos of first responders administering naloxone — a lifesaving drug — to someone overdosing. But what if the person was alone at the time of an overdose? A Northwestern University professor has developed an implantable device that would administer the drug when it senses a person is overdosing.
Of three possible ways for people to deliver the life-saving antidote naloxone to a person experiencing an opioid overdose, the use of a nasal spray was the quickest and easiest according to research conducted by William Eggleston, clinical assistant professor at Binghamton University, State University of New York, and colleagues at SUNY Upstate Medical University.
2019 marks the close of a decade of unimaginable loss to our communities. Likely an underestimate, we lost half a million of our friends in these last ten years to the War on Drugs-fueled overdose crisis. With deep reverence for this painful truth, we want to take a moment to uplift and reflect upon the power of one small group of Harm Reduction programs who were responsible for distributing an enormous portion of the nation’s naloxone directly to people who use drugs and those who love them this past year.
The overdose reversal drug is simple, cost-effective and saves lives. But it has to be with the right people at the right time to make a difference.
Ahead of the busy holiday travel season, one U.S. congressman is pushing to add a life-saving drug on airplanes. Last summer some airlines agreed to carry naloxone after a Delta passenger died from an opioid overdose.
An opioid overdose can be a lonely death. People who use drugs often do so in private, and should they get a dose stronger than they can tolerate, no one will be there to save them with the overdose-reversing medication naloxone. But now, a researcher at Northwestern University is developing a technological fix to that lethal conundrum.
