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Medical Video: Prince -- Medical Examiner Says Fentanyl Overdose Caused Death | TMZ
After Prince Roger Nelson, aka Prince, the legendary musician of the 80s was found dead on April 21, 2016, medical officers and forensic experts finally released an official statement regarding the cause of the death of the singer "Purple Rain". Prince apparently died from a fentanyl overdose, according to a report released by the Midwest Medical Examiner 's Office, reported by The Huffington Post.
What is fentanyl?
Fentanyl is a synthetic psychoactive drug commonly used to control pain during surgery and post-surgical pain. Doctors also prescribe fentanyl for cancer patients and chronic pain that is intolerant of other opiates, such as morphine or heroin, or when other painkillers no longer work effectively.
First developed around the 1960s, this drug was intended as an alternative to morphine. Doctors will use fentanyl to treat unbearable pain from cancer therapy or post-operative pain. Fentanyl is responsive, crosses the blood-and-brain boundary faster than other drugs, and is proven to be very efficient at targeting opiate receptors in the body.
According to National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA), like heroin, morphine and other opiates, fentanyl works to bind to the body's opiate receptors, which are concentrated in certain areas of the brain where pain and emotion are controlled. When opium drugs bind to these receptors, they can increase dopamine levels in the brain's reward area, thus producing a happy and relaxed mood.
Misuse of fentanyl
Opioid drugs will develop dependency, and some patients tend to look for other drugs with stronger doses once the initial dose stops working.
Fentanyl is very easy to abuse, even in unintentional cases. The potential and effectiveness of the drug make it an easy target for abuse.
There are many fentanyl side effects, both if used medically in medical supervision or illegally, which are not desirable. Anything?
- Dizzy and dizzy head
- Dry mouth
- Urinary retention
- Respiratory suppression
- Severe constipation
- Rash or red itching
- Nausea and vomiting
- Loss of appetite
- Lost weight
- Headache
- Difficulty seeing
- Depression
- Hallucinations
- Nightmare
- Hard to sleep
- Sweating
- Trembling
- Swollen hands and feet
The time release formulation for fentanyl provides strong pain relief with time of use. Fentanyl is generally available in the form of lollipop and koyo candy. This drug is also available in sheets of film that dissolve in the mouth and pills that are implanted in the cheeks. When prescribed by a doctor, fentanyl will be given to patients through injection. However, now fentanyl types associated with dependency cases are produced on the black market and mixed with - or replaced with - powdered heroin.
Mixing fentanyl with illegal heroin or cocaine has been shown to double the deadly potential, because the difference between therapeutic doses and lethal doses is very thin.
Just like other opiates, the main symptoms of fentanyl abuse include euphoria (extreme happiness; excitement), drowsiness, lethargy, depression, confusion, blinding, loss of consciousness, coma, to addiction.
Quote Gulf NewsPrince was given an antidote for an overdose a week before the day he died.
A drug called an opiate antagonist receptor works to block the effects of opiate drugs. Fentanyl overdose should be treated immediately with opiate antagonists.
Prince's death and opiate epidemic in the United States
Some sources say that Prince was first prescribed fentanyl when he began to experience waist problems and lower right leg. The medical team's report also noted that there were surgical scars from previous surgery that might be associated with joint pain surgery. Prince is thought to experience chronic joint and knee pain for years as a result of stage performance.
Prince's death - and the misuse of fentanyl in general - is part of an opiate epidemic that is now rife in the United States; also occurs thousands of times each year among people with chronic diseases. The death toll is in the thousands. In 2014, more than 18 thousand Americans died from prescription opiates, and 700 of them were due to fentanyl.
Fentanyl is a synthetic opiate that has a strength 80 times stronger than morphine and hundreds of times more deadly than heroin, the CDC said, reported by The Guardian. Small doses of this drug can push the user to the stage of overdose, over the tolerance limit. This medicine is so strong that the recipe will be written in a microgram dose; fentanyl in the size and dose of aspirin tablets (80 - 500 grams) will kill you very quickly.
Prince allegedly died from ongoing fentanyl therapy which led to an overdose, or this fentanyl therapy then led him to abuse opiate drugs.
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