Effectiveness of take-home naloxone programs and availability of naloxone nasal spray in different jurisdictions

Key take-home messages

• There is wide support of take-home naloxone programs as they are associated with decreased mortality, but there is some evidence that take-home naloxone alone may not be sufficient to significantly reverse the risk of negative health outcomes as a result of a drug overdose.
• Higher-concentration intranasal naloxone (at least 2 mg/mL) has the efficacy similar to that of intramuscular naloxone (2 mg) for reversal of opioid overdose, with no difference in adverse events.
• Take-home naloxone programs are in place in many jurisdictions across North America, Europe and Australia, but few of them have switched to using intranasal naloxone sprays. These include Ontario, the Northwest Territories, New York State, California, three Australian states and Norway.
• Little research has been completed on using naloxone nasal spray in real-world settings, but initial results are encouraging as they indicate that the nasal spray formulation is successful at reversing the effects of opioid overdose in most cases.

• Population(s)
  • People who use drugs
  • General HIV+ population
  • General HIV- population
• Prevention
  • Drug use behaviours/harm reduction
  • Biomedical interventions