A novel study published in the journal, Clinical Chemistry , has found that it takes the human body much longer than previously thought to clear xylazine—one of the most popular emerging drugs of abuse in the U.S. This much-needed insight into how the body processes xylazine could improve treatment of overdose patients who've taken it.
Xylazine has traditionally been used in veterinary practice as a tranquilizer, but between 2019 and 2022, detection of xylazine in fentanyl-associated overdose deaths soared by 276%, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This is particularly concerning because, since xylazine's not an opioid, Narcan doesn't work in reviving people who've taken it. Complicating matters further is the fact that xylazine has been studied very little in humans, which means that health care providers don't have all the information they need to treat patients who've used it.
In an effort to help close this gap in knowledge about the drug , a team of researchers led by Bridgit Crews, Ph.D., associate professor of pathology and immunology at the Washington University School of Medicine in St.
Louis, set out to determine how long xylazine remains in the body. The team initially identified 493 patients who'd used xylazine, nearly all of whom also tested positive for fentanyl. Of these, 28 met the study criteria and had blood samples available that could be used to assess xylazine's half-life, which is the amount of time it takes for.