Is it a heroin overdose or something worse?
A new study in Annals of Emergency Medicine warns emergency physicians that what appears to be an increase in heroin overdoses is actually an increase in overdoses tied to acetyl fentanyl mixed into street drugs marketed as heroin.1
“What’s frightening about this emerging street drug is that users may not be aware that they are ingesting it,” said lead author John Stogner, PhD, assistant professor in the department of criminal justice and criminology at the University of North Carolina in Charlotte. “A patient may report heroin use and have symptoms consistent with heroin overdose, but an emergency physician may find that the standard dose of [naloxone] doesn’t work. Larger or additional doses are necessary when acetyl fentanyl is responsible.”
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One Response to “Drug Overdoses from Acetyl Fentanyl Mixed Into Street Drugs On Rise”
January 7, 2015
Georgia Joins Ranks of States Supporting Naloxone Use in Overdose Cases - ACEP Now[…] Medical Amnesty Law,” the legislation allows physicians and other health care professionals who prescribe naloxone and the people who administer it in the case of an overdose to be immune from any civil or criminal […]