The epidemic of lethal prescription opioid overdose is one of the most pressing public health problems in the United States. In an ambulatory clinic setting, current practice guidelines suggest healthcare providers should screen patient’s aberrant drug-related behaviors. Given the difficulty of predicting which patients on chronic opioid therapy (COT) will experience opioid overdose, a new paradigm of harm reduction is called for. In previous studies, naloxone, an opioid antagonist, was given only to high risk patients. However, if naloxone is co-prescribed in a Universal Precautions manner for all patients receiving COT, this may have a significant impact on intentional and unintentional opioid overdose deaths.

Reference:

Takeda MY, Katzman JG, Dole E, Bennett MH, Alchbli A, Duhigg D, Yonas H. Subst Abus. 2016 Apr 19:0. PMID: 27093555