RT Book, Section
A1 Raj, Kristin S.
A1 Williams, Nolan
A1 DeBattista, Charles
A2 Papadakis, Maxine A.
A2 McPhee, Stephen J.
A2 Rabow, Michael W.
SR Print(0)
ID 1166172914
T1 Other Drug & Substance Use Disorders
T2 Current Medical Diagnosis and Treatment 2020
YR 2020
FD 2020
PB McGraw-Hill Education
PP New York, NY
SN 9781260455281
LK accessmedicine.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1166172914
RD 2022/05/24
AB While  the  terms  “opioids”  and  “narcotics”  both  refer  to  a  group  of  drugs  with  actions  that  mimic  those  of  morphine,  the  term  “opioids”  is  used  when  discussing  medications  prescribed  in  a  controlled  manner  by  a  clinician,  and  the  term  “narcotics”  is  used  to  connote  illicit  drug  use.  The  group  includes  natural  derivatives  of  opium  (opiates),  synthetic  surrogates  (opioids),  and  a  number  of  polypeptides,  some  of  which  have  been  discovered  to  be  natural  neurotransmitters.  The  principal  narcotic  of  abuse  is  heroin  (metabolized  to  morphine),  which  is  not  used  as  a  legitimate  medication.  Heroin  has  taken  a  more  widespread  geographic  distribution,  involving  primarily  white  men  and  women  in  their  late  20s  living  outside  of  large  urban  areas.  The  other  common  opioids  are  prescription  medications  that  differ  in  milligram  potency,  duration  of  action,  and  agonist  and  antagonist  capabilities  (see  Chapter  5-11).  All  of  the  opioid  analgesics  can  be  reversed  by  the  opioid  antagonist  naloxone.