Naloxone Rescue Kits for Primary Care Patients Receiving Opioids for Chronic Pain May Reduce Opioid-Related Emergency Department Visits

Recent studies have shown that co-prescribing naloxone with opioids for patients being treated by long-term opioid analgesics reduces the incidence of opioid overdose. In the NOSE study, nearly 2,000 patients were co-prescribed naloxone with their opioids.

The overall opioid-related emergency department visits were reduced by 47 percent in just six months and 63 percent in 12 months among those who were co-prescribed naloxone, compared with those who were not.

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Coffin PO, Behar E, Rowe C, et al. Nonrandomized intervention study of naloxone coprescription for primary care patients receiving long-term opioid therapy for pain. Ann Intern Med. 2016;165(4):245–252.