Anesthesia and Drug Addicted Patients

In recent years, drug use has been increasing worldwide and in our country. This article aimed to raise awareness about the difficulties that clinicians may encounter in patients with substance addiction during anesthesia and the management of these difficulties. Drug use has short-term and long-term effects on all organs and systems. In addition, these substances interact with many drugs and can lead to unpredictable results. This situation is more complicated for anesthesiologists; many drugs from the barbiturate, narcotic, and hypnotic groups are used to provide amnesia, analgesia, and anesthesia, which are the basis of anesthesia practice. Patients who are addicted to drugs usually hesitate to share their substance use information with the clinician in the preoperative period. As a result, different clinical states occur due to possible drug interactions. Inferences about substance use are made by evaluating the clinical status of drug interactions in patients who underwent anesthesia without information about substance addiction. In patients with learned substance addiction; in order to prevent unexpected effects, it is necessary to know the interactions of the substance used with anesthetic drugs. In patients with drug addiction, it is important for clinicians to understand the interactions of anesthetic drugs with these substances. As a result; patients who use drugs are now more frequently encountered in anesthesia practice. Understanding the current drugs and their effects on the body may provide advantages in the follow-up and treatment of patients.