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Fri, 1 Mar 2002 22:34:23 +0200

> Morphine is potentially extremely hazardous when given to under
> (volume) resuscitated patients. It can readily cause loss of the
> airway, apnoea and profound hypotension.

Sorry, but none of the above is true regarding the hazards of morphine. It
cannot, when given alone for acute pain, cause loss of airway. It does not
produce apnea, unless you give an obvious overdose, and it does not produce
profound hypotension.

You say these are well known, but they are not. I have no idea where these
falacies come from. Just open Goodman and Gilman, or any other pharmacology
textbook.

There is another falacy, that morphine causes addiction. This has been
refuted, and it might even protect against addiction. At least one major
study of 16000 patients who received high doses of morphine for > 2 wks,
showed that the rate of addiction in this group was half the rate in the
normal population.
I believe it may protect against addiction, because when you give morphine
for acute pain, the patient associates the drug with pain, not with
pleasure.

Avi

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