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Studies on the Drug Codine

Studies on the Drug Codine


The drug codeine is manufactured by the drug morphine, and could be made from the drug opium. The effects of codeine are similar to the effects of morphine, but codeine is not as potent and retains effectiveness when taken orally. Codeine is primarily used to relieve pain and to suppress coughing. A person that is on the drug codeine could build a tolerance and become addicted to it.

Codeine is considered a narcotic drug when not prescribed by a doctor. Codeine is not usually taken by itself. It is usually mixed with another drug or cough syrup such as: Tylenol, APAP, Empirin and Robitussin. Codeine is used as an analgesic, or an anti-tussle. The physical and psychological dependence of the drug is moderate. When taking codeine the drug duration lasts for about three to six hours. Codeine can be taken orally or can be injected. The long-term effects of codeine are very harsh on the human body. Some of the long-term effects are: Euphoria, drowsiness, respiratory depression, constricted pupils, and nausea. Some of the withdrawal effects codeine has: watery eyes, runny nose, yawning, loss of appetite, irritability, tremors, frequent panicking, cramps, chills, and sweating.

Codeine is a narcotic, one of two clinically useful phenanthine alkaloids in opium. It was discovered in the drug opium, in the year 1832, by a French chemist named Pierre Jean Robiquet.

It appears sensitivity to the opiate; codeine varies with ethnic background, according to a recent study. Codeine’s analgesic properties stem mainly from the body’s ability to metabolize it into morphine, says J.J. Alastair Wood of Vanderbill University School of Medicine in Nashville. Wood examined the effects of codeine in men in European and Asian extraction. Both groups transformed codeine into morphine similarly, but the people in the Asian group experienced weaker effects from the drug. Morphine is responsible for the pain relief in codeine. Studies showed that some people lack an enzyme called CYP2D6 that chemically alters codeine into morphine. About eight percent of Whites, six percent of Africans, and one percent of Asians do not produce CYP2D6. Doctor’s think that people that do not respond to pain-killing drugs need higher doses.

Doctor’s did a test on how codeine effected the breathing, blood pressure, and pupil dilation...

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