Health

Prince Was Scheduled to Meet an Addiction Specialist

May 4th 2016

Prince was scheduled to meet with an addiction treatment specialist the day after he died, a Minneapolis attorney, William Mauzy, told the Associated Press on Wednesday.

princeAP Images - apimages.com

The report lends weight to speculation that the beloved singer's death — the cause of which is still unknown — could be linked to an opioid pill addiction. Prince's representatives allegedly reached out to Dr. Howard Kornfeld, a California doctor "particularly skilled in the assessment and treatment of opiate and other chemical dependencies, chronic pain and problems with alcohol," one day before his death.

Kornfeld wasn't able to come to Prince's Minneapolis estate the same day, but his son, Andrew, was allegedly one of three people to find the singer dead on April 21. Andrew Kornfeld was carrying a small amount of buprenorphine, a treatment option for patients with addiction, according to reports. The AP reported:

"Mauzy said Andrew Kornfeld was carrying a small amount of buprenorphine, which Howard Kornfeld says on his website is a treatment option for patients with addiction issues that offers pain relief with less possibility of overdose and addiction. But Mauzy said Andrew Kornfeld never intended to give the medication to Prince, but rather planned to give it to the Minnesota doctor who was scheduled to see Prince."

PainkillersFlickr / Casey Fleser - flic.kr

An autopsy was done on the singer's body the day after he died, but the results of that report, which include a toxicology analysis, have not yet been released.

Rumors that Prince's death were linked to prescription pain killers surfaced hours after the 57-year-old's April 21 death. Those rumors came about after the singer's plane was grounded for a health emergency one week before his death. One source told TMZ that Prince had a prescription for Percocet, a brand of the potent opaite oxycodone, following a hip surgery in 2010.

princeAP/Alex Brandon - apimages.com

Prescription opioid addiction has reached epidemic levels in recent decades, with an estimated 14,000 Americans suffering fatal overdoses on opioid pain medication, according to the Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention.

It's unclear how strong a link there is between Prince's death and his possible dependency on opioid medication, but it is tragically clear that a strong connection would be hardly unheard of.

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