Estados Unidos adopta tratamiento para la sobredosis de opioides

Para hacer llegar el fármaco naloxona a personas en riesgo de sufrir una sobredosis de analgésicos recetados, varios estados de los Estados Unidos están adoptando tácticas que comenzaron a experimentarse hace décadas con usuarios de heroína en Nuevo México. Más información, en inglés, está disponible abajo.

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To get the life-saving drug naloxone to people at risk of overdose from prescription painkillers, states adopt decade-old tactics pioneered in heroin users in New Mexico.

During the past decade, unintentional poisonings in the USA have skyrocketed and are now the country's leading cause of injury death, killing more people than gunfire or car accidents. In most cases, opioid drug overdose induces unconsciousness and respiratory depression and ends in cardiac arrest, a process that may occur over a period of minutes or even hours. In contrast to other injury deaths, this provides a window of opportunity to intervene, and the drug naloxone provides a means for doing so.

The challenge is ensuring naloxone is available and given to overdose victims who urgently need it. Some of the most successful tactics for doing so were pioneered during the past two decades in people who use heroin, and New Mexico was at the forefront.

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