TN doctors can now prescribe overdose antidote
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JACKSON, Tenn. — A new Tennessee law could save lives. Drug overdose is the number one cause of death in the state, according to new data. A prescription pill now available can buy precious time to get someone to the hospital. “We see it every single day, people coming in with overdoses,” Dr. David James said. James works in the emergency room at Jackson-Madison County General Hospital. He treats patients who overdose. “Generally their blood pressure will fall,” Dr. James said. “They’ll slow down their breathing, become less responsive, less able to manage their own airway.” A new state law gives Tennesseans access to naloxone, known as narcan. The drug temporarily reverses the effects of opioid drugs. “The quicker you can get that drug on board the better off the patient is,” Dr. James said. According to the state Health Department‘s Vital Statistics office, drug overdoses killed 1,166 people last year. “People know where to go,” Jim Jones said, a licensed clinical social workers at Pathways. “They know what doctors to talk to usually to get the prescriptions that they want.” The law allows doctors to prescribe narcan to the patient at risk of overdosing, or to family or a friend. Jones says it could save lives. “A lot of times people that are abusing drugs, they’re on their own, so if you can get the families involved with this that’s great,” Jones said. Doctors say if you administer the drug, call 911 immediately.
