Routes of
administration Oral CAS Number 127-35-5 Molar mass 321.4559 g/mol | ATC code N02AD02 (WHO) PubChem CID 14707 | |
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Legal status AU: S9 (Prohibited)
CA: Schedule I
DE: Anlage I (Controlled)
UK: Class A Withdrawn
US: Schedule II Synonyms Fenazocina, Phenazocinum, DEA No. 9715 | ||
Phenazocine (brand names Prinadol, Narphen) is an opioid analgesic drug, which is related to pentazocine and has a similar profile of effects.
Effects of phenazocine include analgesia and euphoria, also may include dysphoria and hallucinations at high doses, most likely due to action at κ-opioid and σ receptors.
Phenazocine appears to be a much stronger analgesic with fewer side effects than pentazocine, probably due to a more favorable μ/κ binding ratio. Phenazocine is a much more potent analgesic than pentazocine and other drugs in the benzomorphan series, most probably due to the presence of an N-phenethyl substitution, which is known to boost μ-opioid activity in many classes of opioid analgesics.
Consequently, phenazocine is some 4x the potency of morphine as an analgesic. Also it does not cause spasm of the sphincter of Oddi, making it more suitable than morphine for the treatment of biliary or pancreatic pain.
History
Phenazocine was invented in the 1950s. It was one of a number of benzomorphan opioids (including pentazocine, dezocine, and cyclazocine) developed in the search for non-addictive strong analgesics.
Phenazocine was once widely used, and was mainly supplied as 5 mg tablets of the hydrobromide salt for sublingual use (Narphen, Prinadol and other names), but its use was discontinued in the United Kingdom in 2001.
Phenazocine was briefly used in the United States but fell out of favour for the above-mentioned reasons; it remains a Schedule II substance under the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Control & Prevention Act (aka Controlled Substances Act) of 1970 (CSA) but is not manufactured; other Schedule II narcotics not in use in the United States include bezitramide and metopon. The DEA ACSCN for phenazocine is 9715 and its 2013 annual manufacturing quota was 6 grammes