Written by: Madison Elliott
Over the past 15 years, there has been an alarming increase in the number of deaths caused by overdoses. Thankfully, professionals in the medical field have noticed this increase in overdoses and have been working to find a solution to this problem.
Medical professionals believe Narcan is our best possible solution. Narcan is an opiate antidote that reverses the effects of an overdose. When taken, Narcan knocks the opiates out of the opiate receptors in the brain, stopping the absorption of the opioid (the drug). Naloxone molecules bind the these receptors at a higher affinity than the opiate, thus once this is done, it is much easier to reverse respiratory depression and bring the person back to consciousness.
It may be necessary to take multiple doses of Narcan if the initial dose has no effect on the patient. People who are prescribed high doses of opioids are also prescribed equivalent doses of Narcan in case of emergency or potential addiction.
Narcan is a fairly new drug and therefore the side effects have not been fully investigated. It is known that there are no side effects if the drug is taken when the patient has not overdosed. While human studies for this new drug are lacking, there have been many lab studies with rodents where there were no harmful effects when given to rodents. I believe Narcan has the potential to be a very important drug and can possibly save many lives.
Sources:
http://stopoverdoseil.org/narcan.html
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