Drs. Corinne Hohl and Jessica Moe’s project: Naloxone Dosing in the Era of Ultra-Potent Opioid Overdoses has been featured on CIHR.
Drs. Corinne Hohl and Jessica Moe and their team at the University of British Columbia wanted to better understand the effectiveness of the opioid antidote naloxone on reversing overdoses due to increasingly common ultra-potent opioids such as fentanyl. They analyzed 174 studies that looked at naloxone administration to reverse non-medical opioid toxicity among 26,660 patients. They compared the dose of naloxone needed to reverse the effects of lower potency opiates such as morphine and heroin, compared to high-potency opioids. They determined that in North America, standard naloxone doses were less effective at reversing overdoses of fentanyl and its powerful new analogues, and these agents required higher overall doses to reverse their effects compared to heroin and other opioids. The study could have important implications for the development of first-responder treatment guidelines in communities with a high prevalence of ultra-potent opioids.