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May 16, 2008|Volume 36, Number 29|Four-Week Issue


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Drug addicts can learn to
save lives, says researcher

Drug users can be taught to identify and quickly respond to overdoses of heroin or other opioids as effectively as medical experts, a Yale study suggests.

The study supports efforts of some drug counselors, physicians and public health experts who have started community-based programs to train addicts and supply them with the opioid antagonist drug naloxone in order to respond to potentially fatal drug overdoses.

Naloxone, a medication lacking in abuse potential and routinely used by emergency medical personnel to treat heroin and other opioid overdoses, can be administered by a simple muscular injection. The drug temporarily combats effects of an overdose until medical help can arrive.

Critics of such a harm-reduction strategy, however, have questioned whether drug users have the ability to recognize an overdose and can properly administer the drug. This study, recently published in the early online edition of the journal Addiction, suggests this concern is unwarranted.

“You have to keep people alive long enough to get access to drug treatment for their addiction,’’ says Traci Craig Green, a doctoral candidate in the Yale School of Public Health and lead author of the research. “You can’t treat a dead person.”

Ten individuals who were regular users of heroin or other opioid drugs such as oxycodone or hydromorphone were enrolled in the study at each of six sites across the United States. They were divided into two groups, one with members who had previously received training in overdose response and one with members who had not. Individuals were interviewed to determine if they could recognize signs of opioid overdose and when it was appropriate to administer naloxone. Their responses were then compared to those given by a group of medical experts.

The training, conducted well before the interviews were done, included recognizing differences between overdoses caused by opioids and those caused by other substances such as cocaine, for which use of the drug naloxone is not indicated.

“The study shows opioid users with training can spot an opioid overdose, are less likely to miss true opioid overdoses, and can determine whether naloxone should be administered and when it should not be administered,’’ Green says.

The study was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health. Other authors included Robert Heimer and Lauretta E. Grau from the School of Public Health.

— By Bill Hathaway


T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S

Added sun does not lower breast cancer risk, warn experts

Yale affiliates are honored with election to prestigious societies

Strobel’s students rediscover sense of scientific ‘wonder’ . .

Yale to celebrate 307th graduation

Summertime at Yale

Scientist Joan Steitz wins nation’s largest prize in medicine

University names 18 future leaders as 2008 World Fellows

ENDOWED PROFESSORSHIPS

Architecture students helping to design Mideast Peace Park

China’s President Hu Jintao meets with participants in . . .

In Yale-led study, astronomers discover nine young galaxies . . .

Research on male mating behavior suggests brains may be unisex . . .

Paul Anastas honored as the founder of ‘green chemistry’

Town-gown partners honored with Elm-Ivy Awards

SCHOOL OF MEDICINE NEWS

Exhibits explore artist’s Liverpool years, British watercolors

Two student-curated shows focus on the medium of photography

Library creates digital archive of ‘oldest college daily’

Two seniors will study at the University of Cambridge as Gates Scholars

Campus leaders discuss strategies for increasing staff diversity

Former Bucknell chaplain is named new pastor of University Church

Professor Miroslav Volf will co-teach class with . . . Tony Blair

Council of Masters honors 10 juniors for their scholarship . . .

Conference focuses on ‘Women and Men in the Globalizing University’

The future of ‘Computers, Freedom and Privacy’ to be addressed . . .

Karyn Frick honored for contributions to women’s health

Campus Notes


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