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Comment by fracus | Hacker News Reader

I thought morphine didn't cause health damage to the human body apart from addiction and withdrawal symptoms.

Well it absolutely muddles your mind when you're on it and it causes constipation. It can also depress your respiratory system.

And it can make some people very nauseous.

Nobody discusses these mundane drawbacks when they talk about the evils of heroin addiction. When you're high, you puke and you cannot give a shit. Both figuratively and literally.

Not everyone experiences side-effects of opioids, in fact, they are not even THAT common. I do not experience euphoria, nausea, mental fog, or any sedation from ANY opioids. I experience constipation, but I am fine with that. Morphine might be more dulling (or foggy) than say, oxycodone, but it highly varies.

As for "depress your respiratory system", yeah, in high enough doses, or if you are especially sensitive to it.

Pharmaceutical opioids are pretty much safer than NSAIDs. The side-effects of NSAIDs are actually worse than the side-effect of opioids. You will not get ulcers, blood clots, stroke, heart issues, GI issues, and all sorts of other issues with opioids.

Morphine, like all neurotransmitter drugs, affects the autonomic nervous system which can yield a cornucopia of unwanted and seemingly unrelated side effects. It’s a complex system that’s best treated with care.

Nurses in palliative care and hospice are well-known to generously administer morphine in increasing doses, because it eventually takes away all the pain and suffering (of the families and nurses).

That’s a controversial take

Which part? This is definitely a common practice.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4594093/

Not just of the families and nurses.

.. and of the patient. Being in pain, especially constant pain, sucks major ass. People who haven't gone through that don't really know. You can't just ignore it so, in turn, it occupies every space in your brain. We don't realize how many functions we possess that require the precondition of some level of comfort.

As someone young with chronic pain issue but otherwise healthy , obviously increasing doses of opioids or really any opioids at all. This aspect of it occupying every space of your brain can be true in this case as well. It’s hard to compartmentalize and still go about your daily life while no one can see the anguish your in.

at least according to these people [0], you can overdose on morphine, same as any opiate or opioid. not sure their credentials but it makes sense; it's an opioid/opiate and those can cause respiratory depression.

[0]https://www.addictiongroup.org/drugs/opioids/morphine/overdo...

Yeah its like any other opiod- it depresses respiratory function which can cause death but it isnt directly toxic to any organs like APAP is

Oh yeah morphine overdose will kill you dead because you will stop breathing and you won't even know it happened.

The instant antidote is Narcan which is available over the counter at pharmacies in some states.

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