ArticleAddiction (Abingdon, England)2017
Evaluating the impact of a national naloxone programme on ambulance attendance at overdose incidents: a controlled time-series analysis.
Article in Addiction (Abingdon, England), 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 30 citations in OpenAlex.
- Take-home naloxone in multicentre emergency settings: the TIME feasibility cluster RCT.Health technology assessment (Winchester, England) · 2024Trial
- Toxidromes.Nature reviews. Disease primers · 2026Review
- Article
- Acceptability and usability of a respiratory biosensor for drug overdose detection and first responder notification: a qualitative evaluation of perspectives from people who use drugs and wider stakeholders.Harm reduction journal · 2026Article
- From Response to Prevention: Enhancing EMS Impact With Harm Reduction and HIV Education.Cureus · 2024Article
- Is a randomised controlled trial of take home naloxone distributed in emergency settings likely to be feasible and acceptable? Findings from a UK qualitative study exploring perspectives of people who use opioids and emergency services staff.BMC emergency medicine · 2024Article
- Characteristics of and Experience Among People Who Use Take-Home Naloxone in Skåne County, Sweden.Frontiers in public health · 2022Article
- Differences and similarities between emergency department syndromic surveillance and hospital discharge data for nonfatal drug overdose.Annals of epidemiology · 2021Article
- Protocol for a multi-site study of the effects of overdose prevention education with naloxone distribution program in Skåne County, Sweden.BMC psychiatry · 2020Article
- Impact of a community-based naloxone distribution program on opioid overdose death rates.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2019Article
- Lessons learned from ramping up a Canadian Take Home Naloxone programme during a public health emergency: a mixed-methods study.BMJ open · 2019Article
- How competent are people who use opioids at responding to overdoses? Qualitative analyses of actions and decisions taken during overdose emergencies.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2019Article
- Evaluating the impact of a national naloxone programme on ambulance attendance at overdose incidents: a controlled time-series analysis.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2017Article
- Opioid use disorder research and the Council for the Advancement of Nursing Science priority areas.Nursing outlookArticle
- "We get tunnel vision": Emergency medical service providers' views on the opioid epidemic in Baltimore City.Journal of opioid managementArticle
- Frequently asked questions about naloxone: Part 3.Canadian pharmacists journal : CPJ = Revue des pharmaciens du Canada : RPCArticle
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
Authors and funding
7 authors at 5 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND
aimsIt has been suggested that distributing naloxone to people who inject drugs (PWID) will lead to fewer attendances by emergency medical services at opioid-related overdose incidents if peer administration of naloxone was perceived to have resuscitated the overdose victim successfully. This study evaluated the impact of a national naloxone programme (NNP) on ambulance attendance at opioid-related overdose incidents throughout Scotland. Specifically, we aimed to answer the following research questions: is there evidence of an association between ambulance call-outs to opioid-related overdose incidents and the cumulative number of 'take-home naloxone' (THN) kits in issue; and is there evidence of an association between ambulance call-outs to opioid-related overdose incidents in early adopter (pilot) or later adopting (non-pilot) regions and the cumulative number of THN kits issued in those areas?
designControlled time-series analysis.
settingScotland, UK, 2008-15.
participantsPre-NNP implementation period for the evaluation was defined as 1 April 2008 to 31 March 2011 and the post-implementation period as 1 April 2011 to 31 March 2015. In total, 3721 ambulance attendances at opioid-related overdose were recorded for the pre-NNP implementation period across 158 weeks (mean 23.6 attendances per week) and 5258 attendances across 212 weeks in the post-implementation period (mean 24.8 attendances per week).
interventionScotland's NNP; formally implemented on 1 April 2011. MEASUREMENTS: Primary outcome measure was weekly incidence (counts) of call-outs to opioid-related overdoses at national and regional Health Board level. Data were acquired from the Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS). Models were adjusted for opioid replacement therapy using data acquired from the Information Services Division on monthly sums of all dispensed methadone and buprenorphine in the study period. Models were adjusted further for a control group: weekly incidence (counts) of call-outs to heroin-related overdose in the London Borough area acquired from the London Ambulance Service.
findingsThere was no significant association between SAS call-outs to opioid-related overdose incidents and THN kits in issue for Scotland as a whole (coefficient 0.009, 95% confidence intervals = -0.01, 0.03, P = 0.39). In addition, the magnitude of association between THN kits and SAS call-outs did not differ significantly between pilot and non-pilot regions (interaction test, P = 0.62).
conclusionsThe supply of take-home naloxone kits through a National Naloxone Programme in Scotland was not associated clearly with a decrease in ambulance attendance at opioid-related overdose incidents in the 4-year period after it was implemented in April 2011.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.