Policy Maximizes Access
Based on a recent study published in in JAMA Internal Medicine, the DHA policy provides the type of access shown to most effectively increase access to naloxone and reduce deaths from opioids.1
The study looked at the effectiveness of state naloxone access laws enacted over the past several years. Nearly all states have adopted some type of NAL, but the specifics differ widely. Some still require a physician’s prescription for the drug, while others give pharmacists direct authority to dispense naloxone to patients in specific programs. Nine states grant pharmacists authority to dispense naloxone to anyone who requests it—just like the DHA policy.
“The evidence shows that states allowing pharmacists direct authority to dispense naloxone to anyone have seen large increases in the dispensing of the medication. In contrast, states granting pharmacists’ only indirect authority to dispense naloxone have experienced little change,” according to NIH director Francis Collins, MD.
More importantly, the study found that states that adopted direct authority naloxone access laws “experienced far greater reductions in opioid-related deaths than states with indirect authority NALs or no NALs. Specifically, the analysis showed that in the year after direct authority NALs were enacted, fatal opioid overdoses in those states fell an average of 27%, with even steeper declines in ensuing years,” Collins noted.
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