Voice-over:
Some patients with chronic severe pain get relief using a prescription patch that contains the powerful pain reliever fentanyl (fehn-tuh-nill).
But new research shows that drug abusers are using the same patch to get a quick and dangerous high. University of Florida researchers say
contents from the pain patch, which meters out fentanyl over the course of seventy-two hours, are being smoked, injected or swallowed.
Meanwhile, the number of fentanyl-related
deaths continues to rise. In 2004, fentanyl was detected in one-hundred-eighty-two sudden death
autopsies in Florida alone…and was reported as the cause of death in one-hundred-fifteen people. Experts say the current trend of stealing
or diverting drugs for recreational abuse is partly to blame for the increase in deaths. And abusers often disregard the dangers of using a
timed-release drug all at once.
Dr. Bruce Goldberger / UF Toxicologist
“If you withdraw the 72 hours worth of drug and use it in a form that it wasn’t designed to be used for, then it could rapidly result in death.”
Voice-over:
U-F research also showed that those who overdosed on the drug either placed multiple patches on the skin at once or sometimes extracted fentanyl from previously used patches. Doctors say patients need to dispose of new or used patches out of the reach of others to prevent the drug, which has one-hundred times the potency of morphine, from getting into abusers’ hands.
Dr. Bruce Goldberger / UF Toxicologist
“Based on our study we’re recommending that physicians better educate their patients on the use of the patch, and, as a result, we might see lower numbers in fentanyl-related deaths in the state of Florida.
Voice-over:
At the University of Florida Health Science Center, I’m Mike Garrison
