Study: Approved Naloxone Products More Reliable Than Adapted Version

Federally approved devices for administering lifesaving doses of naloxone to opioid overdose victims are more effectively used than improvised devices that some first responders have opted for, a new study reports.

Published in the Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, the study compared blood concentrations of naloxone administered via approved nasal spray (2 and 4 mg) and autoinjector (2 mg) formulations against those of an improvised adaptor that converts liquid naloxone into rapidly acting nasal spray. The researchers found that it takes six administrations of the improvised device to achieve the same blood level of naloxone that is reached with one spray of brand-name nasal Narcan. The 4-mg dose of nasal spray produced the highest blood level of naloxone among all the tested products.

Moreover, this study and others have found that the devices that are approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have about a 90% rate of correct use by participants without training, whereas even those individuals who receive training in use of the improvised devices fail to use them correctly more than half the time.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) contributed to the development of the FDA-approved nasal spray but has no role in its commercial distribution, a news release from NIDA about the study states.