Fentanyl
synthetic piperidine opioid used as an analgesic
Fentanyl is a highly potent synthetic opioid of the piperidine family, used primarily as pain medication. It is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine. Its primary clinical use is in pain management for cancer patients and those recovering from surgery. Fentanyl is also used as a sedative for intubated patients. Fentanyl has a short duration of action. Fentanyl works by activating μ-opioid receptors. Brand names include Actiq, Duragesic, and Sublimaze, among others.
Fentanyl was first synthesized by Paul Janssen in 1960 and was approved for medical use in the United States in 1968. In 2015, 1,600 kilograms (3,500 pounds) were used in healthcare globally. As of 2017, fentanyl was the most widely used synthetic opioid in medicine; in 2019, it was the 278th most commonly prescribed medication in the United States, with more than a million prescriptions.
“Fentanyl” enters the record as synthetic piperidine opioid used as an analgesic. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Fentanyl, synthetic and piperidine can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Fentanyl” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Fentanyl, synthetic and piperidine provides the most credible route into that argument.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q407541. The Library of Congress control number is sh85047807. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1960, 1968, 2015 and 2017.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
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Three-step research path
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- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Fentanyl” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.