A Survey of Propofol Abuse in Academic Anesthesia Programs

Abstract

Propofol abuse in academic anesthesiology likely has increased over the last 10 yr. Much of the mortality is in residents. Most programs have no pharmacy accounting or control of propofol stocks. This may be of concern, given that all programs reporting deaths from propofol abuse were centers in which there was no pharmacy accounting for the drug.

Substance abuse: a national survey of Canadian residency program directors and site chiefs at university-affiliated anesthesia departments

“…Although propofol may not appear as a traditional drug of abuse, a survey conducted amongst academic anesthesiology programs in the United States showed a fivefold rise in the rate of its abuse from 1995-2005; furthermore, 28% of these cases were detected only following death due to overdose, indicating a largely unrecognized problem. 21 We also found an alarming percentage of cases of substance abuse (12.5%) that were unrecognized until a fatality occurred. Data is presented as count (%) of 24 cases reported Table 3 Practices Our figures highlight the ongoing challenge of rehabilitating physicians with known previous substance abuse.…”

Abuso de fármacos anestésicos pelos anestesiologistas

“…An American survey conducted via email and telephone calls to the chairs of the Anesthesia Departments to detect the prevalence of propofol abuse in 126 Anesthesiology residency programs revealed that 18% of the programs reported one or more cases of propofol abuse over the last decade 27 . This figure represents a fivefold increase if compared to the previous survey.…”

“…According to the survey conducted by Wischmeyer et al 27 , among the 16 residents dependent on propofol, six died, three abandoned Medicine and five entered other specialties. Only two residents remained in the field of Anesthesiology.…”

Addiction in Anaesthesiologists and its Implications on Anaesthesia

“…The commonly abused drugs include opioids (morphine, fentanyl and sufentanil), propofol, ketamine, sodium thiopental, lidocaine, nitrous oxide, and the potent volatile anaesthetics [9].…”

“…There is a higher incidence of death among substance-abusing anaesthesiologists due to the high potency and low therapeutic windows of drugs available for abuse to them like opioids, propofol, and volatile anesthetics [15,16].…”