Multiple doses of naloxone may be needed to revive a patient after a fentanyl overdose, given fentanyl’s higher potency compared with other opioids, the CDC advised healthcare providers on Monday.
In particular, nonpharmaceutical fentanyl — that is, illegally manufactured fentanyl and its analogs, often mixed with heroin or cocaine — tends to be especially potent. Such products were involved in most of the more than 700 fentanyl-related overdose deaths reported to the Drug Enforcement Agency from late 2013 through 2014.