What drug users don’t know that could kill them
From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.
A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, and a researcher says opioid drug abusers are in just that position regarding overdoses. At New York University, Pedro Mateu-Gelabert saw this in interview data on 46 drug users between 18 and 32 years of age.
“There’s a lot of unknowns in terms of what needs to be done in overdose that they are not aware of when they start using prescription overdose or transition into heroin.”
For instance, some users thought they could help overdose victims by placing them in a cold shower.
The right answer is to call 911 and get the victim naxalone, which is used to reverse overdose.
The Study in the International Journal of Drug Policy was supported by the National Institutes of Health.
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HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.