Propofol Abuse Growing Problem for Anesthesiologists

I have no idea how large of a container propofol comes in, but I know that personally I don't throw any drug container in the trash - I toss it all in the sharps bin.

I'm a CRNA and I cannot BELIEVE that anyone with the LEAST bit of medical knowledge would give someone an anesthetic agent at his HOME. Yes, it's true that Propofol is not a scheduled drug...which I was somewhat surprised by when I was in anesthesia school. I haven't actually THOUGHT about that for years as it just lays in the cart and we get used to things being the way they are. However, every hospital I've worked in has some way of locking up all drugs, even the nonscheduled drugs. Either a locking anesthesia cart or a tackle box of some sort that locks. But to think that someone would abuse diprivan is just amazing. You're not even conscious after 20 seconds so how good could it be?? On another note, Michael did have access to all kinds of things......and I once worked at a hospital where a scrub tech decided to commit suicide and got ahold of an amp of sux (succinylcholine), depolarizing muscle relaxant...and injected it and chose to commit suicide...I don't think that was Michael's intent but he must have really wanted the propofol...and where there's a will, there's a way...

100ml bottles. They don't fit in most sharps containers, only the ones with large openings.

We had an anaesthesiologist who committed suicide a couple years ago, using a propofol infusion. (His addiction was apparently fentanyl).

It's pretty scary how easily these guys can access drugs. They sometimes walk into the ICU with labelled syringes in their pockets of midaz, roc, etc. so they can get the pt sedated prior to entering the OR.

"Anesthesiologists may be unwittingly driven to substance abuse through chronic exposure to aerosolized fentanyl and propofol exhaled by patients in the OR."
Why is this exclusive to anesthesiologists? Shouldn't this also affect everyone else in the OR? Also, I would assume that a large percentage of Pt's in the OR are intubated. This would lessen direct contact with exhalation. I would like to see other studies on abused drugs by anesthesiologists. I would bet that propofol is on the lower end of the abuse scale.

......and I once worked at a hospital where a scrub tech decided to commit suicide and got ahold of an amp of sux (succinylcholine), depolarizing muscle relaxant...and injected it and chose to commit suicide...