CLINICAL EFFICACY OF NALOXONE IN SEVERE E THYLIC INTOXICATION

The first articles trying to link the effects of ethyl alcohol with th ose of opiates appeared in 1970. The first case of reversion from ethy lic coma due to naloxone was described in 1978. Since then, many autho rs have reported different results related to the effectiveness of opi ate antagonists in this clinical situation, without any of the studies showing a beneficial effect from its use. The purpose of the present study is to perform a double-blinded clinical trial with placebo to ev aluate naloxone's clinical effectiveness in severe ethylic intoxicatio n, using the Glasgow test (GT) to measure the level of consciousness. Treatment was randomly assigned to 38 patients of whom 18 received 2 m g of naloxone and 20 a placebo. Among the results, it was found that t he best approximation of the level of alcoholemia responsible for ethy lic coma, without the involvement of other toxic psychotropes, was mad e using the Glasgow test, especially in patients who are occasional dr inkers. It was shown that naloxone indeed lacks effectiveness in ethyl ic coma, raising the level of consciousness only one or two points in the Glasgow test for the 15 to 45 minutes after its administration and primarily in the group of patients with the lowest levels of consciou sness.