rudy@cbnewsj.ATT.COM (avram.r.vener) (01/17/90)
Index Number: 6299 There is an interesting article in Scientific American (Feb 1990) concerning pain and morphine. The thrust of the article was that morphine, when taken solely to relieve pain is not addictive but care givers are afraid to dispense it adequately because they are afraid the victim will become addicted regardless. I simplified that enormously. Comments anyone? Rudy Vener uucp:att!mtqua!rudy internet rudy@att.mtqua.com
stanton@Neon.Stanford.EDU (Scott Stanton) (01/18/90)
Index Number: 6314 In article <9645@bunker.UUCP>, rudy@cbnewsj (avram.r.vener) writes: >Index Number: 6299 > >There is an interesting article in Scientific American (Feb 1990) >concerning pain and morphine. The thrust of the article was that >morphine, when taken solely to relieve pain is not addictive but >care givers are afraid to dispense it adequately because they >are afraid the victim will become addicted regardless. One of the other items mentioned in that article was that many of the deleterious effects of morphine result from the way it is administered. Since the drug is normally administered in response to pain, it is often given in massive quantities that result in disorientation, hallucinations, etc. The article claimed that it is possible to avoid these effects if the drug is given in smaller doses more frequently, and before the pain really gets going so that the patient doesn't have the wild swings of drug levels. Along with giving smaller doses, the author suggested the drug be administered orally. I have no idea how true all of this is, but it made sense intuitively. -- --Scott (stanton@cs.stanford.EDU)