Prescriptions for opioids far outnumber those for naloxone

Despite the increased need for the opioid overdose antidote naloxone, a new CDC report indicates that overall prescriptions for the drug are still low. Naloxone prescriptions doubled between 2017 and 2018, but that translates to only one such prescription for every 69 high-dose opioid prescriptions. “We may never get to 1-to-1 … but we think that ratio of 1-to-70 is too low,” Anne Schucat, the CDC’s principal deputy director, told STAT’s Andrew Joseph. Data from 2012-2018 showed there was a wide geographic variation in naloxone prescriptions rates: They were highest in small cities and in the South, but lowest in rural counties and in the Midwest. Counties with higher drug overdose death rates also had increased rates of naloxone prescriptions, suggesting that more awareness about overdoses could also increase naloxone availability.