Diprivan (Propofol) – Must This General Anesthesia Be A Controlled Substance?
Diprivan (Propofol), a form of general anesthesia had been hogging limelight as queries regarding Michael’s Jackson’s shocking, untimely demise boomed. A nurse who was tending to the singer revealed to an eminent news channel that Jackson has asked for the drug as he was having difficulty getting sleep. The Associated Press reported finding propofol in his residence. Diprivan has not received approval by the FDA or Food and Drug Administration as a sleep aid or for treatment of sleep disorders.
Factually, propofol has been regularly employed during surgical interventions and procedures like colonoscopies. The drug has an upshot of leading to a well-rested feeling after one wakes up, however individuals having food or drug allergies need to inform their doctors prior to taking it. This routine use of propofol has been an area of major concern amongst several anesthesiologists due to the likelihood of its abuse by several health care employees.
A finding of a study conducted in 2007 printed by the International Anesthesia Research Society revealed that nearly 18% of the 126 academic anesthesia programs in the U.S. had at least one cited occurrence of propofol abuse within the past decade.
Researchers additionally detected that 6 from sixteen residents (nearly 38%) that indulged in propofol abuse faced death due to it. Though these are diminutive numbers, Dr. Paul Wischmeyer, professor of anaesthesiology and lead author of the study considers that this is suggestive of a bigger crisis and merely the tip of the iceberg.
Wischmeyer states that those individuals that indulged in propofol abuse often have undergone a traumatic episode previously in their life, and use the drug as means of escaping it. Such individuals additionally had a tendency of being impetuous and often are risk-takers.
Wischmeyer, an avid researcher on the subject of propofol abuse lost one of his batch mates in residency due to this drug.
A startling revelation Wischmeyer made was being aware of some physicians who would try to get their hands into jagged containers containing disposed needled for pulling out old, discarded syringes containing propofol that have been already being employed on other patients, and then using it on themselves.
The drug is observed to affect two key brain receptors – one that is linked to marijuana and the other targeted by anxiety-combatant drugs like Valium. Wischmeyer further added that once somebody has used propofol in a manner they recollect, they mostly always opt to try it over again. There are few individuals who could die due to propofol abuse as the drug could face contamination when it lies around for protracted periods of time, much alike ‘milk gone sour or has got spoilt’. There is additionally the major risk arising from overdose with a mere one or two cc extra leading to death.
Must propofol be deemed a controlled substance that requires scheduling, with strict circulation and rigid accounting of its usage? There is still ongoing debate regarding this among anaesthesiologists.
Stringent pharmacy control of Diprivan would incur raised costing and administrative supervision. Though there have been cited occurrences of propofol abuse, it is yet less recurrent as compared to opioid and benzodiazepine abuse that are overseen by austere federal laws and local pharmacy control.
Wischmeyer believes that it must be a controlled substance due to it lethality. He disputes that merely having an additional stratum of accounting, analogous to that with several pain relievers and tranquillizers in hospitals, would not hold-up the delivery of drugs to patients that needed them. It was solely due to the Wischmeyer’s group research that the anaesthesiology community turned more sentient towards the thriving abuse issue.
The authors have written about how majority of the anesthesia programs failed in tracking or control the dispensing of propofol stocks. Though the drug didn’t give a ‘kick or high’ as such, but proffers a sense of euphoria on waking up.
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