★ Must-know
Opioids produce intense, constant, dose-dependent analgesia and act on all types of pain.
Inhibitory opioid effects include analgesia, respiratory depression, and somnolence; excitatory effects include miosis, nausea, and vomiting.
Opioids depress respiratory responses to hypoxia and hypercapnia and impair regulation of respiratory rate; the source also notes increased tidal volume and decreased respiratory rate.
Further detail
Opioids can cause psychomotor excitation or sedation, and psychoaffective effects ranging from euphoria to dysphoria, anxiety, hallucinations, or logorrhea.
Opioids reduce vigilance but do not produce hypnosis.
Opioids can cause thoracic rigidity by decreasing thoracic compliance.
Opioids inhibit pain and breathing, while exciting pathways can produce miosis, nausea, and vomiting.
1. Which description best characterizes opioid analgesia?
2. A patient receiving an opioid develops pinpoint pupils, nausea, and vomiting. How are these effects classified?
3. After receiving an opioid, a patient responds less effectively to low oxygen and elevated carbon dioxide, while breathing more slowly with increased tidal volume. Which opioid effect best explains this pattern?
What characterizes opioid analgesia in intensity, duration, and dose dependence?
It is intense, constant, and dose-dependent.
Which types of pain can opioids relieve?
All types of pain.
Which effects are inhibitory effects of opioids?
Analgesia, respiratory depression, and somnolence.
Which effects are excitatory effects of opioids?
Miosis, nausea, and vomiting.
Which respiratory responses do opioids depress?
Responses to hypoxia and hypercapnia.
How is morphine administered by titration?
As a 2 mg bolus every 5 minutes.
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