United States: A new study shows that naloxone, a special medicine, can help save people who have had a heart stop because of an opioid overdose. Naloxone works quickly by stopping opioids from affecting the brain, which helps someone start breathing again if they’ve stopped due to the overdose. Opioids can also cause the heart to suddenly stop beating during an overdose, but naloxone can help fix this problem.
Increasing Drug-Related Cardiac Arrests
As reported by HealthDay, “The incidence of drug-related cardiac arrests has skyrocketed in the past two decades, and there is an urgent need for evidence to guide possible naloxone use in this circumstance,” said researcher Davis Dillon who is purely an assistant professor or we can say an educator of emergency medicine at the University of California, Davis.
Most of the cardiac arrests due to the heart attacks or electrical problems in the heart of but the opioid OD-related cardiac arrests are a major cause of death among the adults who ages between 64 said the researchers.
So hereby almost or can say more than 15 percent of the opioid OD cases are treated by paramedics involve in the cardiac arrest the American Heart Association says.
Study Findings
To accomplish this research, the investigators assessed data on 7,960 patients with opioid-associated cardiac arrest in three Northern California counties between 2015 and 2023.
In the OD cardiac arrest patients, the investigators also noted that out of 9 patients who received naloxone, 1 had a shockable cardiac rhythm and their heart began beating again with restored blood circulation.
Data of this study showed that one of the patients treated with naloxone was alive and was discharged from the hospital after every 26 patients.
The new study is here, JAMA Network Open, and it was released on August 20.
Implications of the Research
“To our surprise, our research revealed that use of naloxone was actually linked to a better survival rate in cardiac arrest incidents resulting from overdose or those unrelated to drugs,” the author of the university news release quoted Dillon. “This is important because it contributes our knowledge about efficacy of naloxone with regards to drug related, OHCA.
