Fentanyl - Are There Any Medical Reasons for Taking This Substance?

Are There Any Medical Reasons for Taking This Substance?

Anyone who has ever faced surgery knows that it is a traumatic experience. Most humans will resist being "put to sleep" by drugs. Anesthesiologists, the doctors who are trained in the procedure of putting people to sleep, often begin with a dose of fentanyl. The drug acts very quickly to relax patients and prepare them for drugs such as sodium pentatholA drug given to surgical patients to induce sleep, usually administered by injection. or nitrous oxide. Fentanyl also dulls pain. Even patients who are under complete sedation can experience rapid heartbeat and changes in blood pressure as they are cut. Fentanyl prevents this pain response and is thus the drug of choice for heart surgery and other delicate operations.

When an anesthesiologist gives a patient fentanyl, he or she will carefully monitor the patient for breathing problems. This monitoring continues throughout the operation. For more minor procedures, such as tooth extractions, surgeons may administer fentanyl to sedate a patient and relieve pain without ever putting the patient entirely to sleep. The patient might dimly recall events during the operation but will feel no pain. Again the doctor monitors the patient very closely for any signs of breathing problems.

Actiq, a lollipop containing fentanyl, is designed to help cancer patients in severe pain. The drug company took care to design the product so that children would not mistake it for candy. AP/Wide World Photos.
Actiq, a lollipop containing fentanyl, is designed to help cancer patients in severe pain. The drug company took care to design the product so that children would not mistake it for candy. AP/Wide World Photos.

Relief for Cancer Patients

Cancer is one of the deadliest diseases that modern people face. It strikes children, adults in the prime of their lives, and the elderly. Sometimes the tumors produced by cancerous cells cause great pain in patients—so much pain that people can no longer sleep, eat, or function at all. Fentanyl patches allow cancer patients a degree of freedom. Sufferers do not have to be confined to a hospital bed, taking painkillers through a needle. As terminal patients near the end of their lives, fentanyl patches ease the pain so that they can interact with their caregivers and their families with less emotional trauma.

The fentanyl lollipops were developed for patients with advanced cases of cancer who have already taken some other strong form of pain medicine. Sometimes cancer patients develop a toleranceA condition in which higher and higher doses of a drug are needed to produce the original effect or high experienced. to their pain medications. Other times they suffer "breakthrough pain," or sudden bursts of extra pain, that last several hours. The lollipops ease this pain. Patients are warned to suck the lollipops only until the pain ceases—not until the whole lollipop is gone. That way the lollipops will be more effective in the next round of breakthrough pain.

The legal uses for fentanyl provide the strongest case for avoiding the drug on the street. Doctors, dentists, and anesthesiologists use it only in extreme situations on patients who would otherwise suffer great agony, stress, or surgical complications. Many of the patients who receive patches or lollipops are dying. Others face total loss of function without the medicine. Fentanyl is a very powerful substance, often used as the last course of action.