Preterm infants who are injected with morphine will have increased sensitivity to pain, this conclusion was reached by US researchers.

Scientists found that rats who received morphine immediately after birth needed a larger dose in the future to relieve the pain symptom than rats receiving a placebo.

Morphine is used for preterm infants in cases where the manipulations necessary for treatment and examination cause pain.

At the University of South Carolina, researchers studied newborn rats during the first 9 days of life, who were injected with morphine and tested for their sensitivity to pain.

Rats are born so immature that their initial development is comparable to the development of a premature baby.

At the end of six weeks the rat reaches the age equivalent to the adolescent age of the person. The rats injected with morphine injections were more sensitive to pain than those who received the placebo.

According to the professor of pediatrics Malcolm Levene, this is an interesting and incredible fact, but if morphine does lead to increased pain sensitivity, then careful study of this process is necessary in order not to harm the babies in any way.

Medicinform. Net.

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