The role of naloxone infusions in the treatment of overdoses of long half-life narcotic agonists: application to nor-methadone.
This report describes the use of a naloxone infusion at a rate of 300 micrograms/h to provide constant antagonism of the respiratory depressant effects of a near fatal nor-methadone dose in a 2 year old boy. The terminal half-life for nor-methadone was calculated to be 13.5 h. The results indicate that a single dose of a narcotic antagonist with a short half-life (e.g. naloxone) will probably be inadequate to provide long lasting reversal of the effects of overdoses of long half-life narcotic agonists, and that continuous infusion may be the preferable to repeated bolus doses.
D001049:Apnea / Q000139:chemically induced; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006801:Humans; D007263:Infusions, Parenteral; D008297:Male; D008691:Methadone / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors / Q000097:blood / Q000506:poisoning; D009270:Naloxone / Q000627:therapeutic use*
D009270:Naloxone; C005845:normethadone; D008691:Methadone