Co-prescription of naloxone in patients prescribed opioids after hospital stays in the USA

Editor—While prescription opioids are commonly used to treat pain after injury or surgery, 1 Dowell D. Ragan K.R. Jones C.M. Baldwin G.T. Chou R. CDC Clinical practice guideline for prescribing opioids for pain—United States, 2022. MMWR Recomm Rep. 2022; 71: 1-95 Google Scholar patients receiving higher opioid doses upon discharge are at increased risk of opioid overdose. 2 Stein B.D. Smart R. Jones C.M. Sheng F. Powell D. Sorbero M. Individual and community factors associated with naloxone co-prescribing among long-term opioid patients: a retrospective analysis. J Gen Intern Med. 2021; 36: 2952-2957 Google Scholar Data from the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) State Unintentional Drug Overdose Reporting System show that ∼18.6% of fatal overdoses involved a prescription opioid in 2020, with 5.7% of fatal overdoses involving a single prescription opioid without rescue stimulants (e.g. naloxone). 3 Centers for Disease Control and PreventionState Unintentional Drug Overdose Reporting System (SUDORS). Final Data. https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/fatal/dashboardDate: 2023 Date accessed: September 19, 2023 Google Scholar Although naloxone (an opioid antagonist) has been used since the 1990s to reverse opioid overdoses and has become more readily available to combat the opioid epidemic, 4 Green T.C. Davis C. Xuan Z. Walley A.Y. Bratberg J. Laws mandating coprescription of naloxone and their impact on naloxone prescription in five US States, 2014–2018. Am J Public Health. 2020; 110: 881-887 Google Scholar it is unknown how frequently providers co-prescribe naloxone alongside an opioid prescription.