Understanding Addiction to Morphine and Other Pain Medication

Addiction to pain meds is an incredibly common problem, especially among people who have chronic health conditions, and people who work in manual jobs, or who are professional athletes that must keep up with demanding schedules.

Opioids and morphine derivatives are the most risky pain medications. The body quickly builds up a tolerance to these drugs, and this means that people need to take ever increasing doses in order to experience the pain relieving effect. Drugs such as morphine, methadone and fentany are highly addictive, and in some cases people who are prescribed a drug like methadone to ease the symptoms of one addiction simply end up addicted to the methadone instead, trading one drug for another.

Most doctors are know well aware of how habit forming certain painkillers can be, and are cautious about prescribing these strong painkillers to people who have chronic conditions. In general, morphine is prescribed only in cases where the pain is very severe and the usage is only likely to be short term.

There are still a lot of people addicted to opioids and morphine-derived medications, however. Beating this addiciton can be incredibly difficult, and is best done under qualified medical supervision. The withdrawal related side-effects can be severe, and include phantom pains. The drugs can cause euphoria while the patient is taking them, but also have a sedative effect and if someone takes too large a dose then this effect can lead to CNS depression of the respiratory system, which can be fatal. Seizures, dysphoria and mood changes are not uncommon.

If you or someone you know is addicted to pain medication, have that person seek professional medical help as quickly as possible. Long term repeated dosage of pain medication can be hard on the kidneys and can cause lasting ill effects.