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.