 So, this video was going to be about fentanyl and anesthesia. We can all remember the drug wars of the 1980s. The epidemic spread across the country and ruined cities, communities, and people. This was a horrible time in America, and urban communities were hit particularly hard. No one member of the family unit was untouched from the father down to the newborn. Families were torn apart for the want of a quick high or buck, but this video will not focus on the horrors of the abuse of the drug or the effects it had on the family. This is more than documented. In this video, I want to focus instead on the powerful nature of the drug and how it has become a drug of addiction. As an anesthesiologist, I work with the drug fentanyl pretty much every day, and so I become an expert in the way the drug works and the great uses the drugs can have. In the early 1960s, with the rise of the awareness of different types of cancers and the pain that was witnessed by doctors and healthcare professionals alike, a new, stronger form of anesthetic was born to combat the extreme pain patients had to endure. Sometimes in their final days, fentanyl is classified by the FDA as an opioid agonist because of the mechanism of action. What this means in later is that the chemical structure and composition of the drug allows it to block pain receptors. Its structures allow for more efficiency than the others in the class of drugs such as morphine and oxycodone. It is more potent and works by binding the body's opioid receptors found in the central nervous system that control pain and emotions. This can create an addiction to the drug because it desensitizes the feeling of pain as we perceive it. In anesthesia, we use fentanyl for many different types of procedures. For example, during labor and delivery, chronic pain management, general anesthesia, and sedation, fentanyl can be given in conjunction with other drugs such as propofol to form a sedative hypnotic cocktail. What this does is prolong the effectiveness of both drugs for the patient. So when a patient is put to sleep for a surgical procedure, it is very common to maintain the state of sleep by giving both medications in conjunction with others. During childbirth, fentanyl is used in epidurals and spinal injections. It can prolong the effect of the epidural and expedite the onset of pain relief for the delivering mother. In pain management of patients who may be experiencing chronic pain from cancer treatment, fentanyl is used as a long term pain reliever. So as we've learned about fentanyl, we've seen that it's a great drug when used appropriately, healthcare officials, and we've seen the devastating effects it can have when abused and used as a drug of addiction. However, in this video, my goal was to discuss the way fentanyl works and also describe how it's so essential for the safe delivery of anesthesia. If you have any comments or questions about the drug fentanyl, please comment below with any other questions you might have about this topic, and I'll see you in the next video.