Viw Magazine

Weekly Dose: fentanyl, the anaesthetic that may have been used as a chemical weapon on Chechen rebels

  • Written by Nial Wheate, Senior Lecturer in Pharmaceutics, University of Sydney

Fentanyl is a synthetic analgesic (pain relieving) drug in the same class as morphine. It is used to treat acute or chronic pain, including for epidurals given to women during childbirth.

It is thought that in 2002 fentanyl, or a drug based on it, was used by Russian special forces to disable Chechen rebels after a four-day siege in the Dubrovka...

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