I was watching an episode of “Untold stories of the ER” yesterday. I thought it was supposed to be as realistic a medical program as can reasonably be on TV (unlike, for instance, CSI which I don’t watch because it is so unrealistic). However, something really puzzled me.
This teenager jumped out of a second storey window after being caught in bed with his girlfriend by the girlfriend’s father. Having multiple fractures in one leg he was about to go to surgery when he started acting really goofy. Doc questions girlfriend and finds the patient had wolfed down some marijuana and meth that he had with him before jumping out the window.
The doc told the nurse to give him Narcan. Huh?! I thought Narcan was used to block the effect of narcotics. Since neither marijuana nor meth are narcotics, does administering Narcan make any sense whatsoever?
No, it doesn’t make any sense.
Particularly since nuking the kid with Narcan will render typical painkillers ineffective as well (for broken bones and surgery opiates are often a better choice than OTC stuff)
It makes perfect sense.
Narcan is given pretty routinely when there’s a history or suspicion of any illicit drug ingestion, along with mental/respiratory changes, because there’s always a significant chance that the patient took opiates in addition to/instead of whatever drugs were reported.
And if there are opiates on board which are causing some of the change in mental status, it’s good to know that. A quick shot of narcan will reverse any respiratory problems or unconsciousness IF they’re being caused by opiates.
Narcan is also very short-acting, so if opiate analgesia is needed for surgery or after, it can be used without problems.
Cool. Thanks - you’ve restored my faith in “Untold stories of the ER”. 
I find that program fascinating (although I wish it wouldn’t repeat so often!)
I like true (more or less) cop programs too.
And thanks, Qadgop, for clarifying that for me, as I was apparently mistaken in my assumptions. Noted for future reference.