Canadians from all walks of life have been profoundly impacted by the effects of problematic opioid use, and the crisis continues to claim lives at an alarming rate. By making investments in targeted, priority-driven research, CIHR can mobilize researchers to confront threats such as the opioid crisis, increasing awareness of the issue and our capacity to respond.
Through the Opioid Crisis Knowledge Synthesis operating grant, CIHR is supporting efforts to address the most urgent elements of the crisis, and to investigate strategies that could reduce opioid-related mortality rates.
A partnership with the Canadian Drugs and Substances Strategy, the CIHR Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction (CIHR-INMHA) and the CIHR Institute of Health Services and Policy Research (CIHR-IHSPR), has invested over $1.8 million to support 22 projects, matching teams of researchers with knowledge users across Canada.
Drs. Corinne Hohl and Jessica Moe and their team at the University of British Columbia wanted to better understand the effectiveness of the opioid antidote naloxone on reversing overdoses due to increasingly common ultra-potent opioids such as fentanyl. They analyzed 174 studies that looked at naloxone administration to reverse non-medical opioid toxicity among 26,660 patients. They compared the dose of naloxone needed to reverse the effects of lower potency opiates such as morphine and heroin, compared to high-potency opioids. They determined that in North America, standard naloxone doses were less effective at reversing overdoses of fentanyl and its powerful new analogues, and these agents required higher overall doses to reverse their effects compared to heroin and other opioids. The study could have important implications for the development of first-responder treatment guidelines in communities with a high prevalence of ultra-potent opioids.
To read the full article, visit: https://cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/51388.html
List of INMHA-funded researchers: https://cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/52638.html
UBC Department of Emergency Medicine feature: https://emergency.med.ubc.ca/2020/01/22/drs-jessica-moe-corinne-hohls-project-featured-on-cihr/