A Prospective Study of Non-Fatal Heroin Overdose
We aimed to study the prevalence, characteristics and outcomes of patients presenting with non-fatal heroin overdose. Two hundred and forty nine overdoses in 224 patients (61% male, range 15-49 years). Mean reported age of first heroin use was 18.8 years (range 10-45). forty-two percent reported a p...
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| Format: | Journal Article |
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Informa Healthcare
2008
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/44330 |
| _version_ | 1848756969853157376 |
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| author | Fatovich, D. Bartu, Anne Daly, F. |
| author_facet | Fatovich, D. Bartu, Anne Daly, F. |
| author_sort | Fatovich, D. |
| building | Curtin Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | We aimed to study the prevalence, characteristics and outcomes of patients presenting with non-fatal heroin overdose. Two hundred and forty nine overdoses in 224 patients (61% male, range 15-49 years). Mean reported age of first heroin use was 18.8 years (range 10-45). forty-two percent reported a previous heroin overdose requiring hospital intervention. Co-ingestants incluxded benzodiazepines (61, 27.2%), alcohol (35, 15.6%), cannabis (25,11.1%), amphetamines (13, 5.8%) and hallucinogens (3, 1.3%). Most patients experienced a benign course; 81 of 115 ambulance presentations (70.4%) received prehospital naloxone and 23(9.2%) received naloxone in the ED; 67.9% had no investigations and complications were uncommon (two aspiration, one hypoxic brain injury). Median length of stay was 180min (15 min to 48h). Only 29 (11.6%) presentations required admission. There were 15 individuals (6.7%) who had 40 (16.1% of the total) repeat presentations. Heroin overdose tends to occur in experienced users who commonly co-ingest other drugs. There is a trend of overdose occurring with increasing frequency in teenage females. Repeat overdosing is common. However, while morbidity is low, these patients require considerable resourses |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T09:20:39Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | curtin-20.500.11937-44330 |
| institution | Curtin University Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T09:20:39Z |
| publishDate | 2008 |
| publisher | Informa Healthcare |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | curtin-20.500.11937-443302018-10-03T05:51:40Z A Prospective Study of Non-Fatal Heroin Overdose Fatovich, D. Bartu, Anne Daly, F. naloxone emergency department Heroin overdose We aimed to study the prevalence, characteristics and outcomes of patients presenting with non-fatal heroin overdose. Two hundred and forty nine overdoses in 224 patients (61% male, range 15-49 years). Mean reported age of first heroin use was 18.8 years (range 10-45). forty-two percent reported a previous heroin overdose requiring hospital intervention. Co-ingestants incluxded benzodiazepines (61, 27.2%), alcohol (35, 15.6%), cannabis (25,11.1%), amphetamines (13, 5.8%) and hallucinogens (3, 1.3%). Most patients experienced a benign course; 81 of 115 ambulance presentations (70.4%) received prehospital naloxone and 23(9.2%) received naloxone in the ED; 67.9% had no investigations and complications were uncommon (two aspiration, one hypoxic brain injury). Median length of stay was 180min (15 min to 48h). Only 29 (11.6%) presentations required admission. There were 15 individuals (6.7%) who had 40 (16.1% of the total) repeat presentations. Heroin overdose tends to occur in experienced users who commonly co-ingest other drugs. There is a trend of overdose occurring with increasing frequency in teenage females. Repeat overdosing is common. However, while morbidity is low, these patients require considerable resourses 2008 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/44330 10.1080/14659890802040773 Informa Healthcare restricted |
| spellingShingle | naloxone emergency department Heroin overdose Fatovich, D. Bartu, Anne Daly, F. A Prospective Study of Non-Fatal Heroin Overdose |
| title | A Prospective Study of Non-Fatal Heroin Overdose |
| title_full | A Prospective Study of Non-Fatal Heroin Overdose |
| title_fullStr | A Prospective Study of Non-Fatal Heroin Overdose |
| title_full_unstemmed | A Prospective Study of Non-Fatal Heroin Overdose |
| title_short | A Prospective Study of Non-Fatal Heroin Overdose |
| title_sort | prospective study of non-fatal heroin overdose |
| topic | naloxone emergency department Heroin overdose |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/44330 |