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Morphine
Pre-reading questions
Do you know anyone who has ever been addicted to drugs? What were the consequences of their addiction?
Wht do you suppose people like to use drugs , even when they know that drugs are bad for their health?
What is the best way to help someone addicted to morphine or heroin? Should the government help pay for their cure?
Vocabulary preview
Match each word with the correct defenition
Alleviate a)very srong
Hallucinogen b) a thing that brings respite
Withdrawel c) a drug used to alleviate poin
Chronic d) feelinh intense happiness and excitement
Analgesic e) a drug deived from the poppy plant
Synthetic f) to ease
Euphoric g) continuous or recurring frequently
Opiate h) a substance that cause the user to see or hear things that are not there
Reliever i) artificial; made by chemical process
Potent j) the state of being without a drug on which one is dependent
Poppy k) the fourth sign of the ZOPIAC, the CRAB
Severe l) to have a very strong desire for sth
Relief m) a wilf or garden plant with a large delicate flower that is usually red and small
Cancer n) to manage and organize the affairs of a company
Administer o) extremely bad or serious
Relapse p) the feeling of happiness that you have fun when sth unpleasant stops
Derivatitute q) a powerful drug made from the juice of a type of Poppy
Substitute r) sick again after making an improvement
Opium s) copied from sth else
Crave t) a person or thing that you use or have instead of the one you normally use or have
Morphine is a very potent drug known as an opiat that is used in the field of medicine to relieve pain. Opíates naturally occur in poppy seeds, or they can be synthetically manufactured. They work on the area of the brain that perceives pain, thus reducing the patient's experience of it. Because it is sucha strong drug, it is meant to be used only by people in severe pain. This is because tne stIde etects are significant, and the risk of addiction is high. Morphine can be taken as needed tor certain types of pain such as a bad injury, and it can also be administered continuously for relief of chronic pain such as that experienced by cancer patients.
Friedrich Wilhelm Adam Serturner was the German pharmacist who first isolated morphine. He called it morphum after the Greek god of dreams. Although it is not a hallucinogen, as the name might imply, it is more than just a pain reliever. Morphine also produces a euphorie mental state and relieves anxiety.
As such, even people who do not suffer from chronic pain may find enjoyment from morphine, making it a popular street drug. Before the advent of heroin, a morphine derivative, morphine was commonly abused. But because heroin is more potent and faster acting, it replaced morphine. Even today, when heroin addicts have trouble finding their drug, they often use morphine as a substitute Interestingly, morphine was used early on to treat opium addiction, and even alcoholism, until it was realized that it was more addictive than both of those drugs.
Because it is so adldictive, doctors must exercise caution when prescribing morphine. When used to alleviate pain in people who are dying, addiction is not a concern, and the drug can be used to make the patient more comfortable during his or her final days. However,when used as an analgesic in paticnts who are in severe pain but not dying precautions should be taken. Doses and frequency of doses should be closely monitored, as well as the patient's withdrawal symptoms. There are two main indicators of addiction-withdrawal and tolerance. Tolerance occurs when a patient needs more and more of a drug to achieve the same effects. Withdrawal occurs when the body shows signs of needing the drug. In the case of morphine this includes nausea, diarrhea, fever and chills, watery eyes, runny nose, headaches, body ache, tremors, and irritability.
Not only is morphine physically addictive, it is also psychologically addictive. A morphine addict, having gotten through eight to twelve days of withdrawal without resorting to morphine use, is no longer physically addicted. The body becomes accustomed to not having the drug and resumes normal functioning. The cravings, however, will persist because the person has become psychologically dependent on the drug. They crave it and have a difficult time functioning without it. This can often lead to severe depression and anxiety. Many people have difficulty sleeping and even develop amnesia. Self esteem is diminished as the person copes with living life without the help of a drug.
Not surprisingly, relapse is very common among morphine addicts, particularly if the factors in their lives that led them to drug abuse are not ehanged. A study of morphine addiction in rats showed that if the rat's environment was enriched after removal of morphine doses, it more easily coped with psychological withdrawal. Clearly, in treating morphine addiction, it is essential that the patient's environment 15 altered to one that does not encourage morphine use.
To summarize, morphine is a highly effective drug, that can be used to alleviate pain, but it should be used under the close supervision of a doctor The risk of addiction is high, and withdrawal is a painful process-the psychological element of which can last a lifetime.
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