PSY 374 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Laudanum, Noscapine, Naloxone
Document Summary
Chapter 11 the opioids: narcotic analgesics, opioid receptors and endogenous neuropeptides, opioids and pain, opioid reinforcement, tolerance, and dependence. The opioid drugs are narcotic analgesics; they reduce pain without producing unconsciousness. They create a sense of relaxation and sleep, and at high doses, can lead to coma and death. They are the best painkillers known, and they also produce a sense of euphoria. Opium is an extract of a poppy plant (papaver somniferum). Most comes from southeast asia, india, china, iran, turkey, and southeastern europe. Opiates have been used recreationally and in medicine for thousands of years. Laudanum, an opium-based medicinal drink, was introduced in 1680 in england. Drinking laudanum-laced wine was the accepted form of opium use in victorian england and america. Up to the twentieth century, laudanum was common in popular remedies. The main active ingredient in opium is morphine.
