“Why did the pharmacy give me Narcan?” This is one of the most common questions I hear as a

[00:00:00]Why did the pharmacy give me Narcan with my pain medication? Hi, I'm Chelsea, a retail pharmacist giving you a look at life behind the pharmacy counter. I can think of a couple of reasons why you may have received or been offered Narcan at the pharmacy if you were picking up an opioid pain medication. So, Narcan is an opioid reversal agent. If you're in the position or situation where you take too much or you have an overdose, you can use Narcan to reverse the overdose and it could potentially save your life. So, a couple of reasons why you might be getting it at the pharmacy. Number one, I have seen providers require patients who are on opioid medications to get Narcan just to be on the safe side. And this is also really great if you have like small kids at home or kids at all at home who could accidentally get into your medication. It's a great thing to have on hand if you have opioids in the home. Number two, some insurances like my state's Medicaid, they actually require a Narcan to be filled if a patient is on more than one medication that can cause respiratory depression.

[00:00:56]In addition to that, the pharmacy or the pharmacist may suggest you get Narcan if you are on medications that interact together or you're on a very high dose of Narcan. In those situations, I've never seen a pharmacist require a patient get Narcan, but I have seen Narcan be covered at no cost under most patient patient's insurance. So, again, it is really great to have it on hand. I I keep it in my emergency kit in my car and I actually keep it at home as well.

[00:01:18]So, if you have questions about Narcan, let me know.