You Survived an Opioid Overdose. What Do You Do Next?
In 2019, the CDC reported that over 50,000 people in the US died from opioid overdoses. During the coronavirus pandemic, numbers of overdoses and overdose fatalities have continued to climb. Lucky ones who survive an overdose may find themselves in the emergency department of a hospital, revived with the aid of naloxone or other life-saving drugs.
What then? Many overdose survivors are diagnosed with Opioid Use Disorder (OUD), a serious disease, but a treatable one. The barriers to adequate treatment abound, however. Whether you’re trying to find solutions for yourself, a family member, a friend, or a loved one, understanding the limitations and available options is a crucial step. Similarly, if you work in a medical environment where you encounter patients with OUD, knowing the pathways to successful treatment can help you advocate for best practices in their continued care.
Understanding Emergency Overdose Drugs
The two most important drugs in emergency overdose settings are naloxone and buprenorphine. Essentially, naloxone blocks opioid effects and reverses overdoses, and buprenorphine manages symptoms of withdrawal, reduces cravings, and serves an important tool in long-term treatment of opioid addiction. Often, they are combined or administered in tandem.
Prescriptions for naloxone, often sold under the brand name Narcan, are relatively easy to obtain. It’s encouraged that users and those near to them have naloxone available to administer in the event of an overdose emergency.
Prescriptions for buprenorphine, however, are much more difficult to obtain. It’s federally regulated, and while doctors are permitted to administer a dose of it in emergency situations, less than 10% of physicians are able to prescribe it for long term use.
Success with Medically-Assisted Treatment
While emergency life-saving medications are crucial, long-term care is needed to curb addiction and guard against further overdoses down the road. Medically-assisted treatment (MAT) that includes buprenorphine — which curbs cravings and mitigates symptoms for those in withdrawal — has been shown to double the likelihood of a patient staying in treatment for a minimum of 30 days.
Long-term treatment doesn’t necessarily solve all of the problems relating to addiction and medication dependency, but symptom relief can allow patients to address issues of mental and emotional stress that can contribute to OUD. The goal of MAT is to create stability in someone’s life so that they can address their problems in a healthy and constructive way, rather than functioning merely in survival mode to reduce the pain and anguish of withdrawal. MAT allows therapists and social workers to spend time not just addressing addiction, but also the trauma, toxic relationships, and other concurrent health issues that may contribute to the addiction on a fundamental level.
Barriers to Buprenorphine Access
The federal regulations surrounding buprenorphine make it difficult for patients in need to gain access to it. For reference, oxycodone — an incredibly addictive pain medication — does not share the same degree of restrictions. Doctors even are free to prescribe medical doses of alcohol to assist patients going through withdrawal from alcohol addiction. Yet finding providers licensed to prescribe buprenorphine remains a challenge to a number of patients in need.
Many people battling OUD would need to drive upwards of 50 miles or more each way to access treatment, which would need to occur on a regular, if not daily, basis. This lifestyle may not be possible for those who need it most, especially during the pandemic. The scarcity of buprenorphine providers exacerbates the stigma OUD patients suffer, creating an unjust barrier to appropriate care.
New Telehealth Solutions for OUD
When people visit emergency departments in hospitals, the focus is on just that — the emergency. Witnessing an overdose can be incredibly traumatic, and seeing someone revived with incredible medications may instill a false sense of security moving forward. Remember that even after the immediate crisis is dealt with, much long-term work remains.
We at Skyler Health hope that those who suffer from Opioid Use Disorder are able to access treatment that will help them address not just their addiction, but the underlying issues that may have led to it. In order to reach as many patients as possible, our services are available online 365 days a year, 24 hours a day.
Our services for OUD patients include individual counseling, group counseling, medically-assisted treatment plans, and more. We accept all health plans, and if the patient meets the criteria, we can provide same-day prescriptions for buprenorphine to help manage withdrawal symptoms as members begin treatment.
Instead of driving hours a day, or scouring your region to find a physician who can and will prescribe this important medication, let us into your space through your phone, tablet, or computer, and accept the support we can provide. It may just make the difference between charting a new course for a life or ending up back in the ER after another overdose.
Make the choice to seek treatment. Learn more at Skyler Health today.
