L’utilité des bandelettes de dépistage du fentanyl pour  la prévention des overdoses est démontrée

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L’utilité des bandelettes de dépistage du fentanyl pour la prévention des overdoses est démontrée

5 novembre 2018

La moitié des 92 participants à l’étude qui ont utilisé les bandelettes ont détecté du fentanyl dans les drogues en leur possession. Pour en savoir plus, en anglais, veuillez lire les informations ci-dessous.

By MedicalXpress

Among more than 72,000 deaths in the U.S. last year, fentanyl—a highly potent prescription opioid often used to lace other heroin or cocaine, but hard for drug users to detect—factored into many of cases.

"We found that fentanyl test strips are an effective harm-reduction tool to prevent overdose," Marshall said. "Harm reduction is important because everyone deserves to be able to take care of themselves and make informed decisions about their health, whether they use drugs or not. These tests strips could be a life-saving intervention for many young adults who use drugs."

The findings were published on Thursday, Oct. 18, in the International Journal of Drug Policy.

The fentanyl test strips work like an over-the-counter pregnancy test, said Max Krieger, a research assistant in Marshall's lab and the lead author of the study. Each single-use strip is dipped into water containing a bit of drug residue, and after a minute, either one or two red lines appear—one line means the liquid contains fentanyl, and two lines means the test did not detect the drug.