EMCDDA event: 'Take home naloxone to reduce fatalities: scaling up a participatory intervention across Europe', 14 October 2014, Lisbon
Belgium
Bulgaria
EMCDDA event: 14 October 2014, Lisbon
Meeting title: 'Take home naloxone to reduce fatalities: scaling up a participatory intervention across Europe'
Drug overdose continues to be the main cause of death among problem drug users and heroin or its metabolites are present in the majority of reported fatal overdoses, often in combination with other substances such as alcohol or benzodiazepines.
Naloxone is a lifesaving overdose reversal drug that rapidly counteracts the effects of opioids and is currently the standard treatment for overdose. As opioid antagonist medication used worldwide in emergency medicine to reverse respiratory depression caused by opioid overdose, it is listed by the World Health Organization as an essential medicine.
In Europe, overdose prevention programmes that include the distribution of naloxone date back to the 1990s. They have in recent years obtained more attention in a number of countries and a number of new initiatives as well as a RCT have started. Take-home naloxone (THN) programmes combine overdose prevention education and first aid training for drug users, their family members or peers with the distribution of the antagonist naloxone.
The main objectives of this event are:
- to provide an overview of the rationale and evidence for THN as part of a comprehensive response to reduce opioid overdose deaths;
- to provide a platform for knowledge exchange about the implementation of THN interventions and their scaling up in practice;
- to provide an opportunity for networking and to meet renowned experts in the field.
Video: Take-home naloxone programmes in Europe — overdose prevention
Posters
- Preventing avoidable deaths: Essentials and recommendations on opioid overdose Essentials and recommendations on opioid overdose, Marta Pinto, APDES (PT)
- Overdose Prevention Services Upon RElease From Prison, Gill Bradbury, Eurasian (UK)
- Models of community and peer-based overdose prevention services; Scotland, Denmark, Italy, Spain, Estonia and Lithuania, Gill Bradbury, Eurasian (UK)
- Naloxone Evidence, Charlotte Klein, Gesundheit Österreich GmbH (GOG) (AT)
- New psychoactive substances in Europe, José Queiroz, APDES (PT)
- Naloxone in Scotland: Innovative Peer Education Programme, Kirsten Horsburgh, Scottish Drugs Forum (UK)
- Take home Naloxone pilot programme in Estonia, Katri Abel-Ollo, National Institute for Health Development (EE)
- Involving the network of drug abuse care entres of Catalonia in an take home naloxone programme, Xavier Majo Roca, Public Health Agency of Catalonia (SP)
- Impact of Rigorously Examining the Effectiveness of Naloxone (take-home; or on release from prison) to Reduce Opiate Overdose Deaths, Sheila Bird, Medical Research Council (UK)
Key documents:
- 10.30 – 12.00 Poster session (Foyer): Naloxone projects and EU-funded projects in the field of overdose prevention
- 12.30 Registration of participants
- 13.00 – 15.00 Session 1: Understanding opioid overdose deaths and rationale for take home naloxone
- Opening of the meeting
- Wayne Hall: Reducing the burden of disease attributable to opiod dependence
- Isabelle Giraudon, EMCDDA: Drug-related deaths in Europe: epidemiology and trends
- Marica Ferri, EMCDDA: Overview of studies on the provision of take-home naloxone
- John Strang, NAC London: N-ALIVE: a randomised trial about naloxone distribution on release from prison
- 15.30 – 17.00 Session 2: Take-home naloxone interventions: regulations, experiences, achievements and challenges
- Brendan Hughes, EMCDDA: Distribution and use of naloxone: legal issues
- Kerstin Dettmer, Germany: A 3-year model project of take home naloxone in Germany
- Xavier Majo-Roca, Spain: Involving the network of drug abuse care centers of Catalonia in an overdose prevention programme
- Kirsten Horsburgh, UK: Naloxone in Scotland: a national approach
- Henrik Saelan, Denmark: The Danish naloxone scheme
- Katri Abel-Ollo, Estonia: Take home naloxone in Estonia
- Thomas Clausen, Norway: Nasal naloxone, as take-home provision for users and relatives in Norway: first experiences
- Brendan Hughes, EMCDDA: Distribution and use of naloxone: legal issues
- Panel discussion
- 18.00 – 19.00 Poster session (Foyer): Naloxone projects and EU-funded projects in the field of overdose prevention & Reception
- 19.00 Closing of meeting
About the EMCDDA
The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) is the reference point on drugs and drug addiction information in Europe. Inaugurated in Lisbon in 1995, it is one of the EU’s decentralised agencies. Read more >>
Contact
The EMCDDA is located at:
Praça Europa 1, Cais do Sodré
1249-289 Lisbon
Portugal
Tel. (351) 211 21 02 00
