Prescriptions are way up for a drug that reverses the effects of an opioid overdose. That could help explain the recent decline in fatal opioid overdoses.
, according to preliminary government statistics reported last month. The previous year, there were more than 70,000 such deaths.
Opioid overdoses can be reversed with naloxone. The drug restores breathing and brings people back to consciousness. It first went on sale in 1971 as an injection; an easier-to-use nasal spray version, Narcan, was approved in 2015. CDC researchers noted there were fewer than 1,300 naloxone prescriptions dispensed in 2012. That means the number grew more than 430-fold in six years.“We don’t think anybody is at the level we’d like to see them,” said, a company that tracks healthcare information, and looked at prescriptions from more than 50,000 retail pharmacies across the country. It included both prescriptions written by doctors for specific patients and those filled under the broader standing orders.
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