Expert: Ronald Levy, M.D. - 4/29/2009

Question
Can someone get addicted to anesthesia?

Answer
The answer depends on what you mean. To be addicted to something, you need to be able to get access to the addicting item. Since lay people can't get access to anesthetics, they cannot be addicted. Anesthesiologists, on the other hand, have one of the highest addiction rates among physicians (it is still extemely low overall but higher than other specialties) because they have access to anesthetics. What they generally get addicted to is not anesthetics, per se, because obviously they would fall asleep and likely die since no one would be around to control it (and a few have died this way). Rather they get addicted to the narcotics they give for pain management during surgery. Fentanyl is a narcotic that is 50 times more potent than Morphine and it is highly addicting to people NOT in pain.

So can people get addicted to anesthesia...No... but if they have access, they can get addicted to the narcotics given during anesthesia.

Hope this helps,

Ronald Levy, MD
Professor of Anesthesiology
UTMB-Galveston