RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Unintentional rapid opioid detoxification
JF Emergency Medicine Journal
JO Emerg Med J
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd and the British Association for Accident & Emergency Medicine
SP 494
OP 495
DO 10.1136/emj.18.6.494
VO 18
IS 6
A1 M A Quigley
A1 S H Boyce
YR 2001
UL http://emj.bmj.com/content/18/6/494.abstract
AB Naltrexone is a long acting opioid antagonist that is used in rehabilitation programmes to maintain heroin abstinence. It is a relatively new drug prescribed by specialists in substance misuse. Its actions and effects may not be familiar to many accident and emergency doctors or even to the people who take it. A case report is described where accidental ingestion of naltrexone results in a medical emergency by precipitating acute withdrawal in a heroin addict.