Abstract
After years of extensive usage, morphine is still regarded as the most powerful pharmacological tool for control of pain. Despite this long record of success in the clinics, it is clear that morphine is not an analgesic, in that pain is not obliterated at systemic dosages that leave respiration intact in man (Javert and Hardy, 1951). Clinical patients report that pain can be elicited in the presence of morphine. Also, the effects of morphine on psychophysical ratings of phasically elicited pain are subtle in comparison with subjective estimates of clinical effectiveness (Beecher, 1957). This disparity of clinical and experimental findings has led to a number of hypotheses concerning the primary actions of morphine: (a) Morphine has been claimed to be an anxiolytic, and its action has been likened to the effects of frontal lobotomy, which is said to attenuate the emotional reactions to pain without disturbing the primary sensations of pain (Freeman and Watts, 1948).
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Beck, P.W. and Handwerker, H.O. (1974). Bradykinin and serotonin effects on various types of cutaneous nerve fibers. Pfluger’s Arch., 347, 209–222.
Beecher, H.K. (1957). The measurement of pain: Prototype for the quantitative study of subjective responses. Pharmacol. Rev., 9, 59–209.
Bishop, G.H: and Landau, W.M. (1958). Evidence for a double peripheral pathway for pain. Science, 132, 712–713.
Cooper, B.Y. and Vierck, C.J., Jr. (1980). A comparison of operant and reflexive measures of morphine analgesia. Neuroscience Abstr., 6, 430.
D’Amour, F.E. and Smith, D. (1941). A method for determining loss of pain sensation. J. Pharmacol. Exp. Ther., 72, 74–79.
Douglas, W.W. and Ritchie, J.M. (1962). Mammalian nonmyelinated nerve fibers. Physiol. Rev., 42, 297–334.
Fitzgerald, M. and Lynn, B. (1977) The sensitization of high threshold mechanoreceptors with myelinated axons by repeated heating. J. Physiol., 365, 549–563.
Fjällbrant, N. and Iggo, A. (1961). The effect of histamine, 5 hydroxytryptamine and acetylcholine on cutaneous afferent fibers. J. Physiol., 156, 578–590.
Franz, M. and Mense, S. (1975). Muscle receptors with group IV afferent fibers responding to application of bradykinin. Brain Res., 96, 369–383.
Freeman, W. and Watts, J.W. (1948). Pain mechanisms and the frontal lobes: a study of pre-frontal lobotomy for intractable pain. Ann. Intern. Med., 28, 747–754.
Goodman, L.S. and Gilman, A. (1975). The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics. MacMillan, New York.
Gray, B.G. and Dostrovsky, J.O. (1983). Descending inhibitory influences from periaqueductal gray, nucleus raphe magnus, and adjacent reticular formation. I. Effects on lumbar spinal cord nociceptive and nonnociceptive neurons. J. Neurophysiol., 49, 932–947.
Haffner, F. (1929). Lxperimentelle Prufung Schmerzstillender mittel. Deutsch Med. Nschr, 55, 731–733.
Henry, J.L. (1979). Naloxone excites nociceptive units in the lumbar dorsal horn of the spinal cat. Neurosci., 4, 1485–1491.
Jackson, H. (1952). The evaluation of analgesic potency of drugs using thermal stimulation in the rat. Brit. J. Pharmacol., 7, 196–203.
Javert, C.T. and Hardy, J.D. (1951). Influence of analgesics on pain intensity during labor (with a note on natural childbirth). Anesthesiol., 12, 189–215.
Jurna, I., Grossman, W. and Theres, C. (1973). Inhibition by morphine of repetitive activation of cat spinal motoneurons. Neuropharmacol., 12, 983–993.
Jurna, I. and Heinz, G. (1979) Differential effects of morphine and opioid analgesics on A and C fibre-evoked activity in ascending axons of the cat spinal cord. Brain Res., 171, 573–576.
Kenins, P. (1982). Responses of single nerve fibers to capsaicin applied to the skin. Neuroscience Lett., 29, 83–88.
LaMotte, C., Pert, C.G. and Snyder, S.H. (1976). Opiate receptor binding in primate spinal cord: distribution and changes after dorsal root section. Brain Res., 112, 407–412.
LaMotte, R.H. and Campbell, J.N. (1978). Comparison of responses of warm and nociceptive C fiber afferents in monkey with human judgements of thermal pain. J. Neurophysiol., 41, 509–528.
LeBars, D., Guilbaud, G., Jurna, J. and Besson, J.M. (1976). Differential effects of morphine on responses of dorsal horn lamina V type cells elicited by A and C fibre stimulation in the spinal cat. Brain Res., 115, 518–524.
LeBars, D., Chitour, D., Kraus, E., Clot, A.M., Dickinson, A.H. and Besson, J.M. (1981). The effect of systemic morphine upon diffuse noxious inhibitory controls (DNIC) in the rat: Evidence for a lifting of certain descending inhibitory controls of dorsal horn convergent neurones. Brain Res., 215, 257–274.
Perl, E.R., Kumazawa, T., Lynn, B. and Kenins, P. (1976). Sensitization of high threshold receptors with unmyelinated (C) afferent fibers. Prog. Brain Res., 43, 263–277.
Randall, L.O. and Selitto, J.J. (1957). A method for measurement of analgesic activity of inflamed tissue. Arch. Int. Pharmacodyn. Ther., 111, 409–419.
Sieqmund, E.A., Cadmus, R.A. and Lu, G. (1957). A method for evaluating non-narcotic and narcotic analgesics. Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol. Med., 95, 729–731.
Szolcsanyi, J. (1980). Effect of pain-producing chemical agents on the activity of slowly conducting afferent fibres. Acta Phys. Acad. Sci. Hung., 56, 86.
Torebjörk, H.E. and Hallin, R.G. (1973). Perceptual changes accompanying controlled, preferential blocking of A and C fibre responses in intact human skin nerves. Exp. Brain Res., 16, 321–332.
Van Hees, J. Gybels, J.M. (1972). Pain related to single afferent C fibers in human skin. Brain Res., 48, 397–400.
Vierck, C.J., Jr. and Cooper, B.Y. (1983). Guidelines for assessing pain reactions and pain modulation in laboratory animal subjects. In Advances in Pain Research and Therapy, Vol. 6. (Eds. L. Kruger and J. Liebeskind). Raven Press, New York.
Vierck, C.J., Jr., Cooper, B.Y., Franzen, O., Ritz, L.A. and Greenspan, J.D. (1983). Behavioral analysis of CNS pathways and transmitter systems involved in conduction and inhibition of pain sensation and reactions in primates. In Progress in Psychobiology and Physiological Psychology, Vol. 10. (Eds. J. Sprague and A. Epstein). Academic Press, New York.
Woolfe, G. and MacDonald, A.D. (1944). The evaluation of the analgesic action of pethidine hydrochloride (Demerol). J. Pharmacol. Exp. Ther., 80, 300–307.
Yaksh, T.L. (1978). Analgetic actions of the intrathecal opiates in cat and primate. Brain Res., 153, 205–210.
Yaksh, T.L. (1981). Spinal opiate analgesia: Characteristics and principles of action. Pain, 11, 293–346.
Zotterman, Y. (1939). Touch, pain and tickling: An electrophysiological investigation on cutaneous sensory nerves. J. Physiol., 95, 1–28.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 1984 The Wenner-Gren Center
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Vierck, C.J., Cooper, B.Y., Cohen, R.H., Yeomans, D.C., Franzén, O. (1984). Effects of Systemic Morphine on Monkeys and Man: Generalized Suppression of Behavior and Preferential Inhibition of Pain Elicited by Unmyelinated Nociceptors. In: von Euler, C., Franzén, O., Lindblom, U., Ottoson, D. (eds) Somatosensory Mechanisms. Wenner-Gren Center International Symposium Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-07292-7_22
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-07292-7_22
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-07294-1
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-07292-7
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)