ClarksvilleNow.com Reporting
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NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Tennessee Department of Health (TDH) released new data on 2013 drug overdoses in the state.

Last year, 1,166 people died from prescribed and illegal drug overdoses (intentional and unintentional). This compares to 1,094 deaths in 2012.
In both of these years, more people in Tennessee died from drug overdoses than crashes, homicides, or suicides.

Physicians can now prescribe naloxone to a person at risk of experiencing an overdose or to a family member, friend or other person in a position to assist a person at risk of experiencing an opiate-related overdose.

“In many opioid overdoses, death can be prevented by administering the drug naloxone, almost immediately reversing the deadly effects of opioids and allowing time to reach further medical treatment,” said TDH Commissioner John Dreyzehner, MD, MPH.

Dreyzehner said naloxone is approved by the Food and Drug Administration and is used by emergency responders.

According to a February 2012 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, naloxone use was associated with more than 10,000 opioid overdose rescues that otherwise might have been overdose deaths.

For more information about naloxone, visit the American Public Health Association website.

To view a video about naloxone and how it is used, visit http://prescribetoprevent.org/video/.