Fentanyl: It´s Advantages and Disadvantages as a Morphine Drug

As the opioid epidemic continues to rise, news outlets and politicians have focused their attention on heroin and opioids. However, they continue to ignore the number one killer, fentanyl. This synthetic opioid is similar to heroin but 50-100 times more potent. In the pharmaceutical industry, fentanyl is prescribed to treat extreme pain, specifically in cancer patients.

To help with the quick admission, intranasal administration is a convenience to those who have to administer Naloxone because intranasal Naloxone has a preset dosage. While intranasal Naloxone is easier to administer, intravenous and intramuscular Naloxone administrators have a choice on the dose to give. Advanced EMTs have enough knowledge to choose the dose of Naloxone to give the patient to keep the patient alive. Intranasal was not approved until November of 2015 when the FDA approved a highly concentrated spray form of Naloxone (Strang et al. 576). Intranasal administration only allows one dose to be given compared to Intravenous administration which allows a more adjusted dosage of Naloxone to be given. According to Ott, an

Fun fact, in the UK, some hospitals use diamorphine, a generic name of heroin to prescribed as a strong pain medication in patients suffering from myocardial infarction, post-surgical pain, and chronic pain, including end-stage cancer and other terminal illnesses. It is still given over there, instead of using Morphine, because some hospital state it a lot better from pain

The opioid epidemic in America continues to grow at an alarming rate with no end in sight. All narcotics are derived from the opium poppy plant and then manufactured into different forms of drugs such as morphine, heroin, and other pharmaceutical and synthetic opioid drugs sold on the market for pain. Opium derived drugs block and suppress pain by binding to and stimulating the natural receptor sites for endorphins found in the central nervous system of a user’s brain. Patients who are prescribed narcotic drugs can quickly become addicted to the drugs because their body’s will stop producing endorphins and instead

Performing therapeutically pointless administrations exclusively with the end goal of creating protection installments seen all the time in nerve-conduction and other indicative testing plans.

Over the past year, heroin has become even more deadly as the drug is now being laced with the elephant tranquilizer carfentanil. An April 27, 2017, article in Ars Technica describes the drug as being 100 times stronger than fentanyl and 10,000 times stronger than morphine. Carfentanil is a derivative of fentanyl, and it comes in the form of a pill, a powder, or a patch on the streets. It only takes two milligrams of carfentanil, which is the same as a few grains of salt, to knock out a 2,000-pound elephant. A person ingesting this amount of carfentanil will die.

Narcan (generic name- naloxone hydrochloride) is used for the emergency treatment of suspected opioid overdose. It can be administered intravenous (IV), intramuscular (IM), or subcutaneous (SQ). Pharmacodynamics: Narcan acts on opioid receptors by blocking the opioid from binding. By doing this, it reverses most of the effects of opioid agonists including respiratory depression, coma, and analgesia. When administered in the absence of opioids, Narcan has no significant effects. If administered prior to giving an opioid, Narcan will block opioid actions. If administered to a patient who is already receiving opioids, Narcan will reverse analgesia, sedation, euphoria, and respiratory depression. If administered to an individual who is physically

On April 21st, 2016 the world lost a beloved musician. Prince’s death was sudden and mysterious and remained that way for several months. After a thorough investigation it was revealed that he accidentally overdosed on a drug called Fentanyl. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid (narcotic) and is part of the established pharmacologic class Opioid Agonist. The IUPAC name of fentanyl is N-phenyl-N-[1-(2-phenylethyl)piperidin-4-yl]propanamide and its chemical formula is C22H28N2O. As an analgesic (pain killer) that is approximately one hundred times more potent than morphine, it is a valuable tool for use in hospitals as a sedative to relieve severe pain before and after surgery. Fentanyl is also commonly used to treat cancer patients that are already

Also, Koputan MH etal 2012(9) stated that wound infiltration in functional endoscopic sinus surgery and septorhinoplasty with tramadol 0.5 mg/kg provided better analgesia and a statistically significant decrease in postoperative fentanyl demand and consumption than did levobupivacaine or lidocaine local infiltration.

The nasal route has been extensively used for topical treatments in the past, for example, in the treatment of rhinitis with antihistamines. However, due to the appealing drug absorption potential of the nasal mucosa, intranasal administration for the systemic delivery of drugs has grown in popularity, allowing it to be considered as an alternative parenteral route of administration 11. The nasal mucosa consists of pseudostratified columnar epithelium that lies on top of a highly vascularised basement membrane. The columnar cell surface possesses microvilli which extensively aid systemic absorption through a greatly increased surface area 5. The highly vascularised mucosa plays a significant role in systemic absorption as blood flow, and subsequently the concentration gradient across the membrane, has a major influence in the absorption of drugs into the systemic circulation 1. These anatomical aspects, coupled with the nasal cavity’s thin and porous endothelial membrane provide an attractive option for a range of therapeutic applications 5. An example of such an application is the administration of fentanyl. Nasal delivery of fentanyl exhibits a rapid onset of action due to the advantageous nasal anatomy and provides a Tmax of approximately 7 minutes, a

Third, Fentanyl is medication used to help relieve severe ongoing pain (such as due to cancer). Fentanyl belongs to a class of drugs known as opioid (narcotic) analgesics. It works in the brain to change how your body feels and responds to pain. Fourth, verapamil is a calcium-channel blocker. It affects the amount of calcium found in your heart and muscle cells. This relaxes your blood vessels, which can reduce the amount of work the heart has to do. Fifth, heparin is a drug that works as an anticoagulant, which means that it prevents blood clots from forming and prevents existing blood clots from expanding. It was originally extracted from the liver, but now it is mostly manufactured synthetically. Heparin, however does not actually dissolve existing blood clots; it only prevents them from forming or expanding. Sixth, nitroglycerin is used for relax and dilate the blood vessels (vasodilator), improving blood flow. Eight, Y-90 is a radioactive form of rare earth metal yttrium used in radiation therapy and immunotherapy. In addition, a TR Band was used as compression device designed to assist homeostasis of the radial artery after a trans radial

In 2015, the Drug Enforcement Administration ended up identifying the drug "Fentanyl" as a top player, a leading cause of injury death, in our good ol' United States. It was part of a new spark in prescription drug abuse after a brief plateu somewhere between 2011 and 2013. But what is fentanyl? It is a common prescription drug that is 30+ times more effective than heroin, and 100 times more effective than morphine, used for pain control. Unfortunately, it is high on the list for both psychological and physical addiction.

Morphine is commonly used in clinical and surgical medicine for a multitude of reasons. This drug is highly addictive and because of its pleasurable effects, morphine is widely used for recreation and has a very high abuse rate. Morphine can be absorbed into the bloodstream through a number of routes of administration. One such way is in the form of capsules, taken orally. This method of administration takes about 30 minutes to experience the peak of effects (Glare & Walsh, 1991). Morphine can also be administered intravenously. This is one of the quickest ways to experience the effects of this drug, as it is administered directly into the bloodstream, and is the reason why this is one the most common routes of administration of this drug.

As of now, the major types of drug delivery that is adopted by the industry which has been tested and approved are the nasal drug delivery, pulmonary drug delivery, and the, transdermal drug delivery. The choice of the Drug delivery depends on many factors, and for each the technologies are varied. (Ranade; Cannon, 2011) There is the transmucosal, liposomal, transdermal, oral, polymeric, and monoclonal antibody directed delivery. These delivery methods have their advantages and disadvantages. The delivery of a drug is a challenging task, and the vivo, vittro and exvivo state of delivery have all been tried. The vitro method the lung tissues and epithelial cells are used to transport the drugs. The advantage of pulmonary delivery are that there is a large surface area for absorption, and is the most proximate system near blood flow, avoids first pass, smaller doses are required. On the other hand the disadvantages are that the lungs filter out most of the drug, and the mucus lining clears the drug and sends it back to the throat that can cause problems,

Nurses play a vital role in observing and interpreting the current symptoms of patients. It is vital that nurses are able to understand the overall symptoms associated with certain diseases and drugs and can confidently present this information to the physician for review and proper patient treatment. Here, the patient's symptoms are suggesting a distinct and dangerous disease as well as possible side effects from Fentanyl.