Pain in cancer patients: Is the increasing of the morphine prescription
the best solution?
By Renato Cocchi, MD.
A recent measure of the Italian Minister of Health (prof. Umberto Veronesi,
an eminent oncologist) is allowing the physicians an easier use of the morphine
in cancer patients, mainly terminal patients.
The prescription is: When there is more pain use more morphine..
This measure seems simplistic and with doubtful rationale for at least two
reasons:
1. There is a great physiological serotoninergic antipain mechanism starting
from the raphe.
2. An opposite action between opiates and serotonin had got many experimental
reports.
This implies two questions:
- Why we cannot first act on serotonin by improving its antipain function?
- Which are the effects of serotonin depression induced by opiates?
Since we are treating terminal patients those two questions might appear mere
fussiness, but I suspect that new problems will arise.
Itakian
translation
News
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