Şaziye Sezin YÜCELİK, Fatma Betül YOLADI, Selen YEĞENOĞLU, Terken BAYDAR

The fine line between occupational exposure and addiction to propofol

Addiction is considered as an occupational hazard, especially in anesthesia units in hospitals. Professionals in anesthesiol- ogy clinics have easy access to a wide range of potent psychoactive drugs, causing them to have a higher risk of drug abuse compared to other healthcare personnel. Recent studies and case reports have shown that abuse of anesthetic drugs used in these units has become a problem among health professionals, and awareness of the problem has increased. Propofol is widely used in anesthesia as a sedative-hypnotic prescription drug and in the literature, propofol abuse is mostly referred to in connection with medical and paramedical personnel. In this manuscript, we reviewed the pharmaco-kinetics, -dynam- ics effect of propofol, discussed toxicological outcomes of propofol abuse and possible institutional measures to be taken against addiction.

Keywords:

propofol, addiction, abuse, anesthetics,

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