For the last two years, SF General Hospital has been proactively trying to limit ER visits and public episodes among meth users by providing them with an anti-psychotic drug called Olanzapine that’s being called “the next Narcan” for stimulant addiction.
There’s been plenty of discussion of fentanyl’s role in the San Francisco overdose crisis of recent years, and rightly so, as 80% of fatal overdose victims in the city last year had been using fentanyl. But methamphetamine is still the drug that’s landing users in emergency rooms at rates higher than other narcotics. According to a recently published research paper in the International Journal of Drug Policy, 47% of visits to SF General Hospital's Psychiatric Emergency Services department “were related to methamphetamine use.”
That same study noted that the SF Department of Public Health (SFDPH) started giving repeat meth-using visitors something called “Methamphetamine Assist Packs,” also known as "chill packs" The Chronicle this week examines the effectiveness of “chill packs” for meth users — these “chill packs” actually being four doses of an anti-psychotic drug called Olanzapine (commercially known as Zyprexa), which is normally used to treat bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.
The SFDPH, which has apparently been handing out the drug to meth users for about two years, declined to comment for the Chronicle’s article. But the International Journal of Drug Policy study’s lead author, Dr. Phillip Coffin of SFDPH, has called Olanzapine “the next Narcan” for treating the effects of meth addiction.
The study found that emergency room visits decreased by 32% among those who’d been given the so-called chill packs. The authors concluded that “Methamphetamine Assist Packs were associated with fewer psychiatric emergency visits for six months after receipt, and represent a promising intervention to address acute psychiatric toxicity from methamphetamine.”
In some ways, this was not a proper study. It did not involve a control group, there were no placebos, and no interviews with patients on their use of the pills. Dr. Coffin has stated publicly that he’d like to do proper clinical trials on the topic in the near future.
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