Morphine Research Paper

Professional Druggy

Have you ever been prescribed morphine by a pharmacist for pain? Or have you used morphine for euphoric and numbing feeling? There are many uses of morphine that people have learned and discovered. Morphine relieves pain by altering how your nerves and brain handle pain (“Morphine.” UXL…). This significant advancement in pain relief medicine was accomplished by Friedrich Serturner, a German pharmacist. Friedrich Serturner, had a different upbringing, separated morphine from opium and found proper dosages, and with its benefits, it is misused in many recreational circumstances.

Friedrich Serturner had a different upbringing that consisted of various disheartening events that ended up working out. He was born in 1793, to

Opium comes from an opium poppy plant which Friedrich used for his experiments (“Morphine” UXL…). He did this by taking an opium and adding hot water to the opium in a test tube. This created crystal like formations of morphine and ammonia (“The Role of Chemistry in History”). This complex of morphine and ammonia is slightly toxic due to the fact that ammonia in large quantities can kill someone due to the fact that your liver cannot detoxify it fast enough. Friedrich did all these experiments late at night, alone, and secretly, in order to go undetected. After many trials, Friedrich had purified the morphine out from the crystals. Next he had to figure out the effects of this drug on animals. Friedrich started out by testing this substance on mice and stray dogs. Once he figured out a pattern of the amount versus the affect, he began to test it on himself and his friends (“Morphine” UXL…). They tried different half doses of the drug up to three, and Serturner recorded the

Morphine is a type of opiate that can assist in the dulling of pain and easing of anxiety (“Morphine” UXL…). The effects of morphine revolutionized pain medication, and finally allowed a variety of people to obtain relief. In the proper dose it is a huge positive in society, but when people become experimental, that’s when the drug becomes dangerous. Morphine as prescribed is legal, but when people turn it into heroin it is no longer legal (“Morphine” UXL…). Morphine can cause side effects such as increased heart rate, seizures, and difficulty breathing or swallowing (“Morphine” MedlinePlus). Alcohol use and other medications may react, and cause a deadly condition (“Morphine” MedlinePlus). Also, morphine can be quite addicting due to its pain relieving qualities, euphoric, and numbing feelings that it causes. Friedrich was addicted to morphine, although its addictive nature was not well known yet (“Friedrich Serturner”). Even with the large positives, there are still some major drawbacks to this drug. In conclusion, Friedrich Serturner grew up to become a well-known pharmacist, separated morphine from opium, and has many positive and negative uses in society. Overall Friedrich revolutionized pain medicine, and altered the level of comfort one could be in after a procedure, and when dying. Morphine is still currently used as a pain killing drug over