Improved Self-Efficacy in Teens
Another study showed that a peer-to-peer training program increased teens’ knowledge about overdoses from 34% before training to 79% after (P < .0001), and it substantially improved their confidence in recognizing an overdose and administering naloxone.
Nichols said the study shows the importance of ensuring “that adolescents know how to keep themselves and their friends safe in the case that they or anyone they know does end up using illicit substances which either intentionally or unintentionally contain opioids.”
This study assessed a training program with 206 students in a Los Angeles County high school who were trained by their peers between November 2023 and March 2024. The training included trends in teen overdose deaths, defining what opioids and fentanyl are, recognizing an overdose, and responding to one with naloxone.
The teens were an average 16 years old, about evenly split between boys and girls, and mostly in 11th (40%) or 12th (28%) grade, though nearly a third (29%) were 9th graders.
The students’ knowledge about fentanyl’s presence in counterfeit pills increased from 21% before the training to 68% afterward, and their correct identification of an overdose increased from 47% of participants to 90%.
The students’ confidence and attitudes toward helping with an overdose also improved substantially after the training. About two thirds agreed that non-medical people should be able to carry naloxone before the training, and that rose to 88% agreeing after the training. The proportion who agreed they would be willing to assist in an overdose rose from 77% before to 89% after training.
More dramatically, the teens’ confidence after training more than doubled in recognizing an overdose (from 31% to 81%) and more than tripled in their ability to give naloxone during an overdose (from 26% to 83%).
“The critical piece to keep in mind is that the concern about opioid overdose is respiratory depression leading to a lack of oxygen getting to the brain,” Nichols explained. “In the event of an overdose, time is brain — the longer the brain is deprived of oxygen, the lower the chance of survival. There is no specific time at which naloxone would become less effective at reversing an overdose.”
Therefore, people do not need to know the exact time that someone may have overdosed or how long they have been passed out in order to administer naloxone, he said. “The sooner naloxone is administered to someone who is unresponsive and who may have overdosed on opioids, the higher the likelihood of a successful reversal of an overdose and of saving a life.”
The peer-to-peer program was sponsored by the CARLOW Center for Medical Innovation, and the EMS study used no external funding. The authors of both studies and Marino had no disclosures. Nichols has consulted or clinically advised TV shows and health tech startup companies and has no disclosures related to naloxone or the pharmaceutical industry.
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.