Opioids Flashcards
What are the 3 opiates?
Codeine, morphine and thebaine.
What is an opioid?
A natural or synthetic exogenous drug that mimics morphine.
What is the only semi-synthetic exogenous opioid?
Heroin.
What are the synthetic exogenous opioids?
Methadone and fentonyl.
What are the endogenous opioids?
Enkephalins and endorphins.
What are the semisynthetic narcotics that contain morphine?
Heroin and hydromorphone.
What are the semisynthetic narcotics that contain thebaine?
Oxycodone and etorphine.
What are some totally synthetic narcotics?
Pentazocine, meperidine, fentanyl, methadone, LAAM and propoxyphene.
What is the difference between an opioid and an opiate?
Opioids are any drug that mimics morphine, opiates are non-synthetic opioids.
How do you make heroin?
- Grow a papaver somniferum (sleep-inducing poppy)
- Wait until the flowers’ petals fall
- Slit the egg-shaped seed pod
- Collect the milky sap - crude opium!
- It thickens and darkens
- Boil it in lime, organic detritus sinks
- This leaves a white top layer of morphine, which can be modified to create heroin.
Approximately what percentage (by weight) of opium is morphine (McKim, 2003)?
10%
Approximately what percentage (by weight) of opium is codeine (McKim, 2003)?
0.5%
The pharmacological effects of morphine and heroin are essentially identical because…
Heroin is converted into morphine in the brain.
When is heroin more potent than morphine?
When injected - the acetyl groups in the molecule make it more lipid soluble and it gets to the brain faster.
Water molecule charge movement causes HOH to ionize, becoming…
H+ OH-
Where morphine has an two OHs (hydroxyls), heroin has…
CH3COO - acetyl/ethyls
Why does fat solubility increase heroin’s potency?
Because blood-brain barrier has a bilayered phospholipid membrane which is impenetrable to ionised molecules (morphine), but not for non-ionised molecules (heroin).
What do exogenous opioids do in the CNS?
They hijack the endogenous system (for endorphins etc.), affecting mu, kappa and delta receptors.
What is nociception?
Pain perception.
What is the pre-thalamic destination of nociception?
The dorsal horn of the spine. Then goes to the thalamus.
What is the cortical destination of nociception?
The somatosensory cortex.