Notes from the Field: Antihistamine Positivity and Involvement in Drug Overdose Deaths — 44 Jurisdictions, United States, 2019–2020

Naloxone administration is important for any overdose with suspected opioid involvement. Because antihistamines do not respond to naloxone, co-involved opioid and antihistamine overdoses might require naloxone administration plus other immediate medical response measures to prevent death. [...]drug testing methods are not standardized across jurisdictions, which might limit interpretation of results. Acknowledgments Jurisdictions participating in CDC’s Overdose Data to Action (OD2A) program and providing data to the State Unintentional Drug Overdose Reporting System, including jurisdictional health departments, vital registrar offices, and coroner and medical examiner offices; Nicole L. Davis, Kyle Suen, Division of Overdose Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, CDC; CDC OD2A team, Division of Overdose Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, CDC. Characteristics of overdose decedents with antihistamine-positive* or -involved results† — State Unintentional Drug Overdose Reporting System, 44 Jurisdictions,§ United States, 2019–2020Return to your place in the text Characteristic Classification of deaths, no. (%) Antihistamine-positive (n = 13,574) Antihistamine-involved (n = 3,345) Diphenhydramine-positive (n = 9,645) Diphenhydramine-involved (n = 2,226) Sex Male 7,842 (57.8) 1,605 (48.0) 5,745 (59.6) 1,050 (47.2) Female 5,732 (42.2) 1,740 (52.0) 3,900 (40.4) 1,176 (52.8) Age group, yrs¶