Intranasal Naloxone: A Case Study

In 2011, a total of 263,979 EMS runs were made to an overdose victim making 1.7% of all emergency calls related to opioid overdose (Faul et al., 2015). On the EMS runs, Naloxone was either administered to patients intranasally, intramuscularly, or intravenously. All methods of administration result in the same hospitalization time and side effects. Intranasal Naloxone can be administered by anyone with minimal training while intravenous and intramuscular Naloxone can only be administered by advanced EMTs because of the need for an I.V. ( Kerr, D., Kelly, A., Dietze, P., Jolley, D., & Barger, B 2009). Intravenous and intramuscular Naloxone should be made the standard method of administration over intranasal Naloxone because more lives would …show more content…
Intravenous administration requires an I.V. and a needle to be placed into the patient. In a study done by Kerr, D., Kelly, A., Dietze, P., Jolley, D., & Barger, B (2009) there was no needle stick injuries to the EMTs while using intravenous administration. The use of an I.V. does not put the safety of the EMT at risk. Intramuscular administration uses a prepacked syringe that provides injury protection to the EMT (Robinson, A., & Wermeling, P. 2014). On the contrary, since both methods require a needle and assembly, this takes time away from the EMT that could be used treating a more urgent patient. But, intravenous and intramuscular Naloxone gives families more time with their loved one. If intravenous and intramuscular Naloxone brings the overdose victim back to life, family members can put loved ones in a recovery and addiction …show more content…
Intranasal Naloxone can be used by any bystander of an overdose and is handed out by doctors and healthcare professionals to anyone that has previously used opioids and drugs. Intranasal Naloxone kits are funded by government projects such as project DAWN. In 2014, the Ohio government spent $100,000 on intranasal Naloxone kits (Faul et al., 2015). If intravenous and intramuscular Naloxone is made the standard method of administration, the taxpayers money can be spent on other things. Not only is naloxone given out less regularly, but the price per unit of naloxone is cheaper when using intravenous and intramuscular naloxone. Intravenous Naloxone average cost is $5 per kit and the average cost of an intranasal Naloxone kit is close to $35 for four uses (Faul et al., 2015). Each time intranasal Naloxone is used, one spray is administered to each nostril. Intranasal Naloxone has to be administered repeatedly to fully reverse the opioid overdose and is often followed by intravenous or intramuscular Naloxone. Insurance companies will most often pay for Naloxone but not the applicator for intranasal administration. While Naloxone is given away for free, people who have no control over allergies have to pay up to $300 for an epi pen. Cancer patients also have to pay high amounts