Gadget That Aims to End the Epidemic of Prescription Overdoses

[avcpl]

http://www.wired.com/2014/06/naxolone/

Naloxone has been used since the 1970s by EMTs, community harm reduction advocates, and inside hospitals, but Evzio will be the first naloxone delivery method that is specifically intended for use in the home by prescription drug patients.

Naloxone is a safe, proven method of reversing the effects of opiate overdose. It’s a chemical salt compound that attaches to the same receptors in your brain that absorb opiates–including heroin, morphine, vicodin, and oxycontin. If these receptors are flooded with opiate, naloxone pushes the opiate out of the way–almost immediately. If there’s no opioide in your system, you wouldn’t feel any effect. But administering the stuff is quite an undertaking. To get the full effect, you have to stick a syringe into a glass bottle, fill with it medicine, and plunge it into someone’s arm or thigh.

This is how Evzio now works. It houses both the drug and the needle in a single, compact device that can administer a dose with the push of a button, and it verbally–yes, verbally–walks you through the process. According to Edwards, when the company tested the device in simulated overdose situations, almost all of them used it correctly–even though they had never seen the device before.

 

[...]

It's a great thing to have, but it can't hope to "end" the epidemic. It does nothing for someone who overdoses alone. I would guess that only a small fraction of fatal overdoses take place in the company of others.

Here's an idea: naloxone micro-pellets that are already in the bloodstream and release their payload when blood drops below a certain critical pH. If I'm not mistaken, suffocation turns blood acidic because all the un-exhaled carbon dioxide circulates as carbonic acid.

 

[Crankinit]

Seems a bit excessive, why not just make a naloxone epipen? But it's good none the less.

I also imagine it's going to lead to a lot of people who are enjoying their nod quite comfortably being thrown into precipitated withdrawals by overzealous relatives walking into the room and assuming they're ODing. But better safe than sorry.

 

[neversickanymore]

^ if people are not able to be awakened by stimulation, then they are at a dangerous level IMO.

Here's an idea: naloxone micro-pellets that are already in the bloodstream and release their payload when blood drops below a certain critical pH. If I'm not mistaken, suffocation turns blood acidic because all the un-exhaled carbon dioxide circulates as carbonic acid.

That's an interesting idea and I hope they develop something that serves as a safety net for opiate overdose.

 

[Captain.Heroin]

Wow as if learning how to perform an IM shot is that hard.

 

[ro4eva]

After reading the title of this thread, I was immediately picturing some fancy new type of hand cuffs

I know, very stereotypical of me, but, good thing I was sorely mistaken.

 

[S.J.B.]

I would guess that only a small fraction of fatal overdoses take place in the company of others.

This study in San Francisco shows that 32% of fatal overdoses occurred when the person who overdosed was reported as being in the company of others, and the real number may be higher, given that bystanders may not want to admit they were with the person who died while they were overdosing.

 

[Crankinit]

^ if people are not able to be awakened by stimulation, then they are at a dangerous level IMO.

Yeah of course, I'm thinking in terms of people skipping the attempted stimulation as soon as they walk into the room and see someone with their eyes closed and not moving, when the user might really just be lying back in their chair with their eyes shot enjoying the dreamy nod (as I often did for several minutes immediately following a shot, even though I could easily have gotten up and walked around if I had to - just would have been a buzzkill).

 

['medicine cabinet']

If a hard sturnum rub doesn't get them to show some activity then you def need to give the shot. But if they are going in and out of it they'd prob be pissed for blowing their nod. Good idea whenever this drug can be available, it truly is the opiate antidote lol

 

[weekend addiction]

I imagine a lot of people will deliberately use this on people to sober them up. I could see some of my dick relatives doing that to me (assuming I lived with them which thankfully I don't). Its not like you can report over use of these things to the cops. I wonder if anyone here has been abused by a relatives intentional misuse of this chemical?