Volunteer to Save A Life: Overdose Education and Naloxone Distribution

This short video opens the discussion on the following:

Naloxone, a prescription medication, is a specific opioid antagonist drug that reverses the effects that opioids have in the brain. When a person overdoses on opioids, the opioid overwhelms the receptors in the brain, slowly decreasing respiration before finally stopping it altogether. Naloxone has a very high affinity for these receptors and effectively pushes the opioid off of the brain receptor. This action allows a person to resume respiration. Naloxone has been used for years by emergency medical technicians and emergency room doctors to reverse overdoses. Outside of this singular purpose, naloxone has no effect on the body, and poses no danger to anyone who administers it to themselves or someone else. During the training, you will learn how to identify causes and risk factors for opioid overdose, discuss common myths about overdose reversal, learn why naloxone is now readily accessible in most states at community pharmacies and how to provide step-by-step administration of naloxone in the case of an opioid overdose.
 

Speakers: Sarah Melton, PharmD, BCPP, BCACP, Professor of Pharmacy Practice, East Tennessee State University College of Pharmacy; Madison Smith, PharmD Candidate; Veronica Blankenship, PharmD Candidate; and Samantha Keen, PharmD Candidate
 

Sponsor: Operation Substance Use Disorders at the Gatton College of Pharmacy at East
Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN