Anesthesiology
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Ventilation and the Response to Hypercapnia after Morphine in Opioid-naive and Opioid-tolerant Rats.
Opioid-related deaths are a leading cause of accidental death, with most occurring in patients receiving chronic pain therapy. Respiratory arrest is the usual cause of death, but mechanisms increasing that risk with increased length of treatment remain unclear. Repeated administration produces tolerance to opioid analgesia, prompting increased dosing, but depression of ventilation may not gain tolerance to the same degree. This study addresses differences in the degree to which chronic morphine (1) produces tolerance to ventilatory depression versus analgesia and (2) alters the magnitude and time course of ventilatory depression. ⋯ In rats, gaining tolerance to morphine analgesia does not reduce ventilatory depression effects when sedated and may inhibit recovery of ventilation.
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Biography Historical Article
Advertising and Uncovering E. H. Neiman's "New Anaesthetic".