CDC Calls for Millions More Naloxone Prescriptions to Reverse Opioid Overdoses Across the U.S.

There have been few glimmers of hope when it comes to the opioid crisis . But a newreportthis workweek from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate that many more people are now getting approach to the opioid overdose antidote naloxone — and that may have help slenderly thin the number of opioid - related dying in 2018 . At the same time , there are still arena of the area that are n’t get the Narcan they call for .

The report , publish as part of the CDC ’s regular Vital Signs series , look at the act of naloxone prescriptions that were dispense from store pharmacies over a seven - yr period . The CDC relied on a database that answer for for 92 pct of all retail prescriptions dispensed on a county level . Between 2012 to 2018 , they receive , naloxone prescriptions dramatically climb . In 2012 , there were only 1,282 such prescriptions . But in 2018 , there were 556,847 Narcan prescriptions , slightly more than double the prescriptions made in 2017 .

Prescription opioids are no longer themost vernacular typeof opioid involved in overdose death , with synthetic opioids like Sublimaze now ranking highest . Nor do most masses who take ordained opioids develop a nub - utilisation disorder or suffer an overdose . But in 2017 , positive opioids were still involved in around 17,000 fateful overdoses ( often , more than one drug is demand in an overdose , and not all people who have die from prescribed opioids lawfully get them ) .

Photo: Mary Altaffer (AP)

Because the risk of overdose can increase when hoi polloi are given high - dose opioid prescriptions , the CDC has recommended since 2016 that Dr. should also order naloxone to these patient . Some states have lawfully mandated the same for their doctors . So the substantially higher amount of Narcan prescriptions ( and fewer eminent - dosage opioid prescription ) last year might have forestall some decease .

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accord to apreliminary reportby the CDC let go of last month , the turn of total overdose dying may have really decline in 2018 by 5 percentage , from the phonograph recording high of 72,000 deaths in 2017 . Opioid - related overdoses also likely took a slight descent , from around 49,000 deaths in 2017 to a picture 47,600 in 2018 .

Argentina’s President Javier Milei (left) and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., holding a chainsaw in a photo posted to Kennedy’s X account on May 27. 2025.

But the CDC authors note there ’s still much more that should be done . Only one in every 69 mellow - dose opioid prescriptions in 2018 get along with Narcan , they launch . And while half a million naloxone ethical drug is n’t nothing , there would have been almost 9 million prescriptions that year if every MD had followed the CDC guidelines . Areas of the country with high rates of opioid prescribing and overdose deaths as well as greater admission to substance - use handling like buprenorphine were also more probable to prescribe naloxone . But rural regions , which have been disproportionately affect by overdose deaths , were less likely to have gamy rates of naloxone prescribing than urban center .

Narcan prescriptions are n’t the only way to ensure that people can be saved when they have an overdose . Some states have overstep laws that grant pharmacist to dispense naloxone to the great unwashed without a prescription , and public health experts have long call for the governance to approve an over - the - counter naloxone product . In January , the Food and Drug Administration foretell it wouldstreamline the processfor companies to uprise and bring to market OTC Narcan , while a genericnasal spray versionof the drug was okay this April .

In the interim , the authors wrote , there are still ways to ameliorate people ’s access to prescription Narcan . That includes lowering the out - of - sack costs for Medicare patients , since they often have higher co - salary than those on secret insurance ; educate medico and patient about the value of Narcan ; and creating or further funding programme that distribute Narcan to mass living in high - risk and rural areas .

William Duplessie