American scientists from the Institute of Clinical Research at the Duke Clinic Research Institute showed that mortality in myocardial infarction is higher in patients treated with morphine, the newspaper "Pharmaceutical Bulletin".

The researchers analyzed the medical history of more than 57,000 patients, some of whom received morphine on the first day after the infarction. It was found out that among the patients who were treated with morphine the mortality reached 6.8 percent. Those who received nitroglycerin had a mortality rate of 3.8 percent. The risk of recurrent myocardial infarction in the first group was 34 percent higher than in the second.

In the opinion of the authors of the study, to verify and confirm the data obtained will allow additional clinical trials.

In the meantime, they recommend doctors to refrain from prescribing morphine to patients with a heart attack, leaving this drug in case of emergency, when other drugs are already ineffective. Instead of morphine, it is suggested that nitroglycerin.

Morphine refers to opioid analgesics. It is used for severe pain caused by myocardial infarction, trauma, after surgery, with malignant tumors. With the introduction of morphine, the mood rises, euphoria arises, the attitude towards pain changes. With repeated administration, the dependence develops. In large doses, morphine depresses breathing.

Medicus. En.