I hate morphine yet it is the one drug that takes away that terrific pain which haunts me day in and day out.
So what exactly is morphine
Morphine is in a group of drugs called narcotic pain relievers.
It is used to treat moderate to severe pain. Short-acting morphine is taken as needed for pain. Extended-release morphine is for use when around-the-clock pain relief is needed. (I take extended-release morphine daily and short-acting on days like this but not every day.)
Morphine may also be used for purposes but the internet has gone down and I need to change what I am doing!
It is used to treat moderate to severe pain. Short-acting morphine is taken as needed for pain. Extended-release morphine is for use when around-the-clock pain relief is needed. (I take extended-release morphine daily and short-acting on days like this but not every day.)
Morphine may also be used for purposes but the internet has gone down and I need to change what I am doing!
More facts - The structure of the morphine
Morphine is obtained from opium, the juice secreted by the seeds of the poppy. It works on several types of receptors, widely found in nervous tissue. "Opioids" is a term used for all drugs that act on these receptors. These other opioids may be natural occurring substances, such as morphine, or made in the laboratory such as pethidine.
Morphine works on receptors in the cell membranes. These are protein-lipid molecules that alter their shape when stimulated to effect molecular changes within cells. There are thought to be three types of receptors that respond to opioids, mu, kappa and lambda. Morphine acts mainly on mu receptors to cause a wide variety of effects. The most important of these are relief of pain and respiratory depression. In anaesthesia morphine is used to relieve pain. This is an effect of its action on the spinal cord to decrease the transmission of painful stimuli from body to brain, and its action within the brain itself.
Morphine works on receptors in the cell membranes. These are protein-lipid molecules that alter their shape when stimulated to effect molecular changes within cells. There are thought to be three types of receptors that respond to opioids, mu, kappa and lambda. Morphine acts mainly on mu receptors to cause a wide variety of effects. The most important of these are relief of pain and respiratory depression. In anaesthesia morphine is used to relieve pain. This is an effect of its action on the spinal cord to decrease the transmission of painful stimuli from body to brain, and its action within the brain itself.
Understand or want some more info?
I could go on about the side effects but I have just read a great article from Finland which I shall print instead. It is about people like me who are on long term morphine and should they be allowed to drive? The answer is YES!
We make 80% of all our journeys by car. Telling someone they cannot drive is serious. Not just the patient may be affected; others in the house may rely on the patient for their transport. Recent BMJ correspondence looked at the diseases which may impair fitness to drive. Another worry is prescribing drugs which impair fitness. One study of deaths in road traffic accidents found tricyclic antidepressants in body fluids of 0.2% of victims, compared with alcohol (35%) or other drugs likely to affect the CNS (7.4%) [1]. Morphine and driving Reassuring results have come from a Finnish study of driving ability in cancer patients taking long-term morphine [2]. Although morphine given as a single dose to a healthy volunteer impairs reaction time, co-ordination, attention and memory, this is not true for patients on long-term stable doses. The authors used a battery of tests designed for professional drivers (Austrian Road Safety Board - as used for Helsinki bus drivers) to compare the performance of 24 patients on continuous morphine (mean 210 mg oral morphine daily) with that of 25 pain-free patients who took no regular analgesics. The morphine patients had been on a stable dose (twice daily sustained release formulation) for at least two weeks. There was no significant difference between the morphine patients and the controls on the driving simulator tests. Balancing ability with eyes closed was significantly worse with morphine, finger-tapping with preferred hand was better. The conclusion was that patients on long-term stable dosing with morphine should be at no greater risk to themselves or to other road-users. Changing the dose How long should drivers taking morphine stay off the road after changing dose? Perhaps the best information comes from a study [3] which suggested that an increase in the dose by 30% will impair cognitive function for one week after the increase. The study indicated that at least the first 3-5 days may be "impaired". It might be safe to use this time limit in the absence of more conclusive evidence.
Interesting hey?
No comments:
Post a Comment