Opioids Can naltrexone be used to treat opiate overdose?

[Dr.Shopper]

I am aware that naloxone is the drug that is usually used for such a case, but in an emergency situation would naltrexone be helpful in treating opiate overdose?

 

[Cane2theLeft]

Are you talking orally or injected? Orally, it probably doesn't kick in fast enough to stop it if you're risking fatal overdose from a quicker ROA. IV/IM it should work but it's still not optimal. If you're looking for a way to be able to safely reverse OD's outside of a clinical setting, your best bet is to try to get your hands on some naloxone nasal spray. From my understanding, it's pretty geographically limited right now and not the easiest to acquire, but it's worth a shot.

 

[sekio]

I think the fastest method might be plugged/rectal naltrexone. Even then it's a bit of a gamble - naloxone is used for a reason.

 

[Dr.Shopper]

I'm not currently taking it but I have some oral naltrexone pills left over from when it was prescribed to me a while back, I was just wondering if it could come in handy in case of an emergency. Do you know anything about intranasal absorbtion of naltrexone? Perhaps that could be a more effective ROA... In any case, I want to make it clear that I don't plan on using opiates in reckless amounts, I'm just trying to use what I have to my advantage. Thanks a lot.

 

[Missykins]

I would be concerned about administering any medication orally to a person with respiratory depression who may not have a patent airway.

 

[Pharmokinetictal]

um. yeah you can use naltrexone for ODs. naloxone is used more often because it has a faster onset and a shorter duration of action. naloxone is more common for emergency respiratory depression. but theyre both antagonists. i dont think intranasal is necesarry....it has a really low oral BA already so its nasal BA will be worse. if your that worried about rapid life saving effects...then just keep it powdered and ready to drink. when the time comes. use something carbonated...it increases absorption. dont snort it. and chances are, if you take it...youll probly experience withdrawals.

 

[Cane2theLeft]

^ how do you know the intransal BA would be lower than the oral? This isn't true for many drugs including cocaine, heroin, oxymorphone, hydromorphone, etc.

Either way, in this case it's irrelevant because it's the onset and not the BA that is the most important factor and intranasal will surely have a faster onset.

 

[Captain.Heroin]

^ how do you know the intransal BA would be lower than the oral? This isn't true for many drugs including cocaine, heroin, oxymorphone, hydromorphone, etc.

It would be true for many benzodiazepines from what I remember off the top of my head, but it doesn't really matter seeing as naloxone can be safely injected in the case of a life threatening overdose.

 

[cj]

I saw a TV show where they where giving the naloxone nasal spray to the loved ones of heroin addicts to use in case of OD. This was in Massachusettes
but I suspect you could aquire one through dedication and the proper channels.

 

[burn2shine]

Yes naltrexone can be used. The night I almost died (lips blue and no breath for a few minutes)I crushed up half a pill, filtered it until clear, drew up the solution in a clean rig and told my friends that if anyone goes out hit them in the shoulder with this. shit worked, and I got off opes that day cause most of my withdrawal was packed into 12 excruciating hours the 25mg of naltrexone put me through.

 

[Drink_Tea_Love_Cat]

I'm going to make my own ultra low dose naltrexone with big bottles and a little dropper or a pipette. Would those be sufficient to bring oneself back from the brink?

I don't like to nod really, but mave experimented with a few potentiation combos that worried me recently.

would it be better to make a more concentrated nasal spray? Over all though, I don't see the point of using a full tablet - shouldn't the point be to bring someone back from OVER dose, and to NORMAL dose. Not to wrench them out into UNDER dose and the pain and misery of WDs?

 

[zebedee79]

If someone overdoses the point is to save their life, not bring them back to a comfortable high. I don't think you can use naltraxone in the way you're thinking, and if someone od's you don't need to be titrating a dose to someone who's brain is being starved of oxygen.

 

[Drink_Tea_Love_Cat]

I guess my angle is that of someone who only really eats opiates most of the time... you can feel the OD coming a mile away. Especially if it's opium. You know if that 2nd hour is strong, then the 3rd might be dangerous. Those building waves are quite predictable with a good opium.

If I'm honest. I've never really been to the edge, or maybe I have but I was too naive and I just remember it as sleeping well or something, hard to tell sometimes. I'm not exactly hardcore or with a high tolerence, but I have played a lot (not sure if I should undersell of oversell my experience here). I have "OD'd" on kratom a lot, you just nausea. The point being if that is an analogy for a real OD, I felt it coming before it hit it's peak of worse-ness.

So maybe, it could work with slowly metabolised oral opiate situations? That is my interest, because I will not be IV'ing or smoking massive hits that KO me in one go. At least I hope I won't be ever. But it's nice to ingest something with a reassurance that just in case you potentiated it too well, you might have recourse...


and, I should add (sorry for waffling, I forgot this wasn't even my thread) - I discovered that coffee works well in this capacity. There is various evidence and research into coffee, in particular instant coffee, being full of opiate antagonists. I have seen this twice in the last 2 days. It was very powerful pulling me out of quite a deep respiratory depressive buzz on opium back to almost just half a buzz, completely ruined my buzz tbh.

cheers

 

[Jabberwocky]

Even with oral opioids, it is not practical to plan on being able to reliably bring yourself out of overdose. It is infinitely safer to have a trusted companion aware of the situation, though I understand this may not be possible. Have you thought about hitting up a local needle exchange in your area to try and get your hands on some proper naloxone?

It doesn't sound like you're talking about the kind of overdoses that most of us think when we see the words "opioid" and "overdose" next to each other though. For your purposes it may well be useful to have some naltrexone on hand to add to your piece of mind. If you do decide to take some because you think you are dangerously high though, ouch! Don't say we didn't warn you so

 

[Danksmasta2]

Hey there, new to the forum.

But as far as opiate overdose goes, trying to shoot naltrexone may work, but its definetly not recommended. The safest was is to always have buddies with you that carry some Narcan. You can get this at any pharmacy with no prescription at least in the U.S. I've seen it save countless lives. If you're an opiate user, use with someone and have some of that on hand just in case of the worst. Hope this helps,

Danksmasta.

 

[c33]

Yes the neltrexone works. Just 2 days ago my fiance and I did some purple H. Well needless to say he did a lil to much and shot before I did well about 10 mins after doing the H he fell out then his lips turned blue so I crushed a 50mg neltrexone while giving him CPR and pulled it up. I had him breathing a lil while I was doing CPR and drawing up the naltaxone. I shot half the rig of neltrexone into his vein just to see what would happen cuz I wasn't sure and if it didn't work then I was calling 911. As soon as I pulled away he started moaning, I was a lil relieved. Waited a couple mins and he still wasn't moving and his breathing was faint. So I gave him the rest of what was in the rig. less than a min after I did, he opened his eyes and set up. All I kept saying was u were dead and omg it worked I said that over and over. I couldn't believe it worked. He calls me his hero, and he doesn't remember anything . But for now on I'm putting the word out and letting people know about this and giving out my scripts for people who may need them. Cuz not every junkie is thinking about going to the pharmacy to get narcan you can believe that. Well I hope this helped...

 

[tacodude]

That's really good to be able to confirm as naltrexone is prescribed heavily for alcohol withdrawals