Saturday, March 30, 2013

Testing for drug aversion

DNA and genome testing to determine if certain drugs will be rejected by a person.  As an example, morphine and derivatives are frequently used during surgery.  After the surgery some people find they don't quickly metabolize the drug, leading to extended withdraw symptoms.


Opioid Metabolism
Clinicians understand that individual patients differ in their response to specific opioid analgesics and that patients may require trials of several opioids before finding an agent that provides effective analgesia with acceptable tolerability. ... several factors contributing to this metabolic variability have been identified.


Though a true medical allergy to morphine is rare, there are some people who are allergic to morphine and many others who suffer severe adverse side effects from morphine.

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