Is It Possible to Be Resistant to Morphine and Other Narcotics?

Question by melissa g: Is it possible to be resistant to Morphine and Other Narcotics?
I am not a drug addict or anything (infact I only take drugs prescribed to me and only when clearly needed) but I had surgery awhile back and when I woke up I was in extreme pain. They gave me in the course of about an hour 2 shots of morphine, 2 shots of demerol and 2 shots of dilaudid in my IV none totally took away my pain of course they think I am an addict but I beg them for a Ibuprofen (800 mg) and it totally zapped my pain and that left them scratching their heads. One nurse suggested I lacked the enyzmes to process opiates. I have searched the web but I can’t seem to find anything, How about anyone else? Have you heard of this? The reason why I am concerned is I am due to have surgery again soon and want to be able to have pain relief without fighting for hours for it.

Best answer:

Answer by dviolin
Hi there!
It sounds like you are one of the 10%-20% of people in the world who has a deficiency on enzyme that converts morphine to its active form which is morphine-6-gluconate. Morphine on its own is inactive, unless it is being activated by our body to its active form that acts as a pain killer. If you have another surgery coming, make sure you let them know about this so that they can prescribe non-opiod (non-morphine like) painkillers.

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