Intoxicação por opióides e opiáceos no Brasil: uma revisão integrativa.

Abstract

The opioids/opiates are substances widely used as painkillers in the modern world, specially by developed countries in which the consumption is higher. Opioid intoxication is a serious problem arising from its use, given that they are directly proportional to one another. This research has been done to investigate the latest papers that report cases of opioid intoxication in Brazil, prescriptions, overdoses, side effects, reaction with other drugs and present-day diseases. This research studies articles published on PubMed, BVS, SciELO and Google Scholar between 2012 and 2022. Descriptors such as “Overdose”, “Intoxication”, “Brazil”, “Interaction”, “Opioids” were used. 32 out of 750 published papers were included in the research. Highlighting the results obtained by the interaction of these drugs with alcohol, benzodiazepines, selective inhibitors of serotonin reception and hydroxychloroquine, as well as HIV patients, cancer and the SARS-CoV-2 virus. When compared to Europe and other American countries, Brazil shows a low number of opioids consumption, at 1.3% of its population. However, it had a considerably rise in medical prescriptions in the latest years, with a 465% growth from 2009 to 2015, with the codeine opiate being the most predominant. On the other hand, even with this increase, cases of intoxication had low records regarding opioids in Brazil, with very few cases registered. Treatments are still mostly done using naloxone, according to recent researches carried out in Brazil and in other countries. Based on this information, it appears that opioid intoxication in Brazil is very rare, but more research is needed to create a database that can provide information on each opioid and its effects on patients.