Objective To evaluate the impact of state supported overdose education and nasal naloxone distribution (OEND) programs on rates of opioid related death from overdose and acute care utilization in Massachusetts.Design Interrupted time series analysis of opioid related overdose death and acute care utilization rates from 2002 to 2009 comparing community-year strata with high and low rates of OEND implementation to those with no implementation. Participants OEND was implemented among opioid users at risk for overdose, social service agency staff, family, and friends of opioid users.Intervention OEND programs equipped people at risk for overdose and bystanders with nasal naloxone rescue kits and trained them how to prevent, recognize, and respond to an overdose by engaging emergency medical services, providing rescue breathing, and delivering naloxone.Main outcome measures Adjusted rate ratios for annual deaths related to opioid overdose and utilization of acute care hospitals.Results Among these communities, OEND programs trained 2912 potential bystanders who reported 327 rescues. Both community-year strata with 1-100 enrollments per 100 000 population (adjusted rate ratio 0.73, 95% confidence interval 0.57 to 0.91) and community-year strata with greater than 100 enrollments per 100 000 population (0.54, 0.39 to 0.76) had significantly reduced adjusted rate ratios compared with communities with no implementation. Differences in rates of acute care hospital utilization were not significant.Conclusions Opioid overdose death rates were reduced in communities where OEND was implemented. This study provides observational evidence that by training potential bystanders to prevent, recognize, and respond to opioid overdoses, OEND is an effective intervention. IntroductionPoisoning, nine out of 10 of which are related to drug overdoses, 1 has surpassed motor vehicle crashes to be the leading cause of death by injury in the United States.2 Overdose is also a major cause of death in Canada, 3 Europe, 4 Asia, 5 6 and Australia. 7 In the United States, increases in fatal overdose since the mid-1990s have been driven by the growth in prescriptions for opioid analgesics 8 and their non-medical use. 9 10 Opioid related emergency department visits and admissions to hospital have increased over the same period.11 In Massachusetts, since Naloxone is an opioid antagonist that reverses the effects of opioid overdose. Overdose education and naloxone distribution (OEND) programs tackle overdose by educating people at risk for overdose and bystanders in how to prevent, recognize, and respond to an overdose. Participants in the program are trained to recognize signs of overdose, seek help, rescue breathe, use naloxone, and stay with the person who is overdosing. From 1996 through 2010, over 50 000 potential bystanders were trained by OEND programs in the United States, resulting in over 10 000 opioid overdose rescues with naloxone. 17 In March 2012, the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs recognized overdose as a global pu...

Administering naloxone hydrochloride (naloxone) during an opioid overdose reverses the overdose and can prevent death. Although typically delivered via intramuscular or intravenous injection, naloxone may be delivered via intranasal spray device. In August 2006, the Boston Public Health Commission passed a public health regulation that authorized an opioid overdose prevention program that included intranasal naloxone education and distribution of the spray to potential bystanders. Participants were taught by trained nonmedical needle exchange staff. After 15 months, the program provided training and intranasal naloxone to 385 participants who reported 74 successful overdose reversals. Problems with intranasal naloxone were uncommon. Overdose prevention education with distribution of intranasal naloxone is a feasible public health intervention to address opioid overdose.

BackgroundOne approach to preventing opioid overdose, a leading cause of premature, preventable mortality, is to provide overdose education and naloxone distribution (OEND). Two outstanding issues for OEND implementation include 1) the dissemination of OEND training from trained to untrained community members; and 2) the concern that OEND provides active substance users with a false sense of security resulting in increased opioid use.MethodsTo compare overdose rescue behaviors between trained and untrained rescuers among people reporting naloxone rescue kit use; and determine whether heroin use changed after OEND, we conducted a retrospective cohort study among substance users in the Massachusetts OEND program from 2006 to 2010. We used chi square and t-test statistics to compare the differences in overdose management characteristics among overdoses managed by trained versus untrained participants. We employed Wilcoxon signed rank test to compare median difference among two repeated measures of substance use among participants with drug use information collected more than once.ResultsAmong 4,926 substance-using participants, 295 trained and 78 untrained participants reported one or more rescues, resulting in 599 rescue reports. We found no statistically significant differences in help-seeking (p = 0.41), rescue breathing (p = 0.54), staying with the victim (p = 0.84) or in the success of naloxone administration (p = 0.69) by trained versus untrained rescuers. We identified 325 OEND participants who had drug use information collected more than once. We found no significant overall change in the number of days using heroin in past 30 days (decreased 38%, increased 35%, did not change 27%, p = 0.52).ConclusionAmong 4926 substance users who participated in OEND, 373(7.6%) reported administering naloxone during an overdose rescue. We found few differences in behavior between trained and untrained overdose rescuers. Prospective studies will be needed to determine the optimal level of training and whether naloxone rescue kits can meet an over-the-counter standard. With no clear evidence of increased heroin use, this concern should not impede expansion of OEND programs or policies that support them.

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