Popular Pain Med Fentanyl
The popular pain med fentanyl CWI California was shock. This very dangerous medication hit the Workers Comp airwaves late last week. An article was published by the California Workers Compensation Institute which indicated that Fentanyl was being prescribed more regularly by certain California physicians as a pain killer.
Fentanyl is one of the most powerful narcotic drugs on earth. It is usually prescribed in a patch form. I had seen two different medical shows where someone had died due to a breathing failure when they accidentally put on two patches – both times after waking in the middle of the night and forgetting they already had on a patch. According to the CWCI article, Fentanyl is 75 to 100 times more potent than oral morphine.
According to the CWCI study, $86 million dollars was spent on Fentanyl from Jamuary 2006 to December 2009 on just Workers Compensation prescriptions. CWCI’s research series has shown that the 10 percent of physicians who write the most Schedule II opioid prescriptions for injured workers in California are associated with 79 percent of all workers’ compensation prescriptions for these types of narcotics, and for 84 percent of the fentanyl prescriptions.
I am not saying that fentanyl does not have its place in treatment. As I have posted very often, why I post on any California issues is that with Workers Comp, what happens in CA will be coming to your state soon.
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