Availability of naloxone in Canadian pharmacies:a population-based survey.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Naloxone is life-saving when administered after opioid overdose. In March 2016, the Canadian government made the antidote available without prescription, but anecdotal reports suggest members of the public have difficulty in procuring it. We examined the availability of naloxone in community pharmacies across Canada.

Methods

We identified community pharmacies in Canada (n = 10 296) and randomly selected 506, stratified using proportionate allocation by population size. We excluded pharmacies in Alberta and Manitoba because these provinces released data indicating which pharmacies made naloxone available to the public during the data collection phase of the study. We contacted pharmacies by telephone during working hours and used a standardized survey to enq

SUBMITTER: Cressman AM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5741422 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature