The role of naloxone infusions in the treatment of overdoses of long half‐life narcotic agonists: application to nor‐methadone.

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Abstract
This report describes the use of a naloxone infusion at a rate of 300 micrograms/h to provide constant antagonism of the respiratory depressant effects of a near fatal nor‐methadone dose in a 2 year old boy. The terminal half‐life for nor‐methadone was calculated to be 13.5 h. The results indicate that a single dose of a narcotic antagonist with a short half‐life (e.g. naloxone) will probably be inadequate to provide long lasting reversal of the effects of overdoses of long half‐ life narcotic agonists, and that continuous infusion may be the preferable to repeated bolus doses.