{"id":29387,"date":"2026-04-17T09:17:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T13:17:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/?p=29387"},"modified":"2026-04-17T10:52:30","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T14:52:30","slug":"marshall-researchers-working-on-safer-more-effective-treatment-for-drug-overdoses-involving-severe-agitation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/marshall-researchers-working-on-safer-more-effective-treatment-for-drug-overdoses-involving-severe-agitation\/","title":{"rendered":"Marshall researchers working on safer, more effective treatment for drug overdoses involving severe agitation"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>A team of Marshall University researchers has published a new study suggesting a potential breakthrough in how doctors manage severe agitation caused by methamphetamine and\/or cocaine use, particularly in cases in which opioids have also been used.<\/p>\n<p>Michael Hambuchen, PharmD, PhD, with Marshall\u2019s School of Pharmacy and Todd Davies, PhD, at the Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine, are studying the use of dexmedetomidine-naloxone for treatment. Their preclinical study was published in the Journal of Pharmacy of Pharmaceutical Sciences and is available <a href=\"https:\/\/www.frontierspartnerships.org\/journals\/journal-of-pharmacy-pharmaceutical-sciences\/articles\/10.3389\/jpps.2026.16294\/full\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Currently, benzodiazepines like Valium are the standard treatment for calming patients experiencing meth-induced agitation. However, as polysubstance use becomes more common, this approach carries increased risk of breathing issues, which can be fatal in some cases.<\/p>\n<p>Hambuchen, an associate professor of pharmaceutical science, said the team tested the combination of dexmedetomidine and ketamine to produce more intense sedation without the effects of breathing suppression.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile both high-dose dexmedetomidine and low-dose dexmedetomidine plus ketamine almost completely controlled methamphetamine-induced agitation in rats, the early sedation was deeper and side effects were less intense with the use of the combination,\u201d Hambuchen said.<\/p>\n<p>Davies, associate director of research and development in the department of family and community health\u2019s division of addiction sciences at the school of medicine, said the research is promising.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDexmedetomidine is uniquely suited to sedation in this clinical scenario as it doesn\u2019t impair breathing, even with opioids present. We are hoping that this will become a tool for clinical care,\u201d Davies said.<\/p>\n<p>For more information about this study, contact <a href=\"hambuchen@marshall.edu\">Hambuchen<\/a> at 304-696-7297<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A team of Marshall University researchers has published a new study suggesting a potential breakthrough in how doctors manage severe agitation caused by methamphetamine and\/or cocaine use, particularly in cases in which opioids have also been used. Michael Hambuchen, PharmD, PhD, with Marshall\u2019s School of Pharmacy and Todd Davies, PhD, at the Joan C. Edwards [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":239,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[78,26,43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jcesom","category-news-releases","category-school-of-pharmacy"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/239"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29387"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29387\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29393,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29387\/revisions\/29393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}