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Morphine: Difference between revisions
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== History of Morphine == | == History of Morphine == | ||
[[Image:example.jpg|thumb|150px|left|Description]] | [[Image:example.jpg|thumb|150px|left|Description]] | ||
Freidrich Wilhelm Adam Serturner (1783-1841), a German | Freidrich Wilhelm Adam Serturner (1783-1841), a German pharmacist's assistant, first derived morphine from opium in 1803. After several experiments, he isolted an organic alkaloid from opium and found that this alkaloid was ten times more powerful than opium itself. He named this new substance morphine after Morpheus, the Greek god of dreams, due to morphine's ability to induce sleep<ref name=morphineaddictionhelp/>. Sertürner and Company first marketed morphine to the public in 1817<ref name=newsmedcal>[http://www.news-medical.net/health/Morphine-History.aspx]</ref>. | ||
Morphine became more commonly used in the medical community after French physician Francois Magendie published a paper in 1818 describing the use of morphine to treat pain in a young girl and help her sleep<ref name=morphineaddictionhelp/>. Interestingly, morphine was often used at first to cure opium addictions as well as alcohol addictions, because doctors at the time considered morphine less harmful than alcohol<ref name=infoplease>[http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/sci/A0859772.html]</ref>. The drug gained increasing popularity in the 1920s, and it became even more widely used after the invention of the hypodermic needle in 1853. During the Civil War, morphine was widely used to relieve pain in soldiers who were injured or had to undergo surgery. This led to roughly 400,000 soldiers who came home with "soldier's disease" (morphine addiction). Morphine was also used to treat soldiers in the European Franco-Prussian War and many other wars<ref name=infoplease/>. It was not until the 1870s that many physicians began to realize the addictive qualities of morphine and the extent of its damaging effects on the body<ref name=morphineaddictionhelp/>. In 1874, heroin was synthesized from morphine. It became extremely popular and was often used to cure morphine addictions. Until the invention of heroin, morphine was more abused than any other narcotic painkiller<ref name=infoplease/>. | |||
Morphine retained its popularity even after many countries passed laws requiring strict regulation and labeling of medicines. In the United States, Congress passed the Harrison Narcotics Act (1914), which forbid the possession of narcotics such as morphine without a valid doctor's prescription<ref name=infoplease/>. | |||
== Morphine Abuse == | == Morphine Abuse == | ||
