Medicine: Morphine Substitute

Morphine is the best pain-killing drug that doctors know. But it has grave defects: it is habit-forming, makes many patients sick, gradually weakens in its effect until bigger & bigger doses must be given. A new drug which seems to be a great improvement on morphine is now being studied by the U.S. Public Health Service and other researchers. The new drug, amidone, appears much less likely to cause addiction than morphine.

Amidone was developed by German chemists about 1941. It was brought to the U.S. by a team of scientists who learned of it while investigating a German chemical plant at war’s end. In the past year, the new drug has been given intensive study at more than 100 U.S. institutions.

An extremely powerful drug, it may be used in smaller doses than morphine, and its pain-killing effect sometimes lasts eight to ten hours. It even controls the extreme pain of late stages of cancer. The Germans reported that they have used it (intravenously) in amputations, and even in head operations. The patient remains fully conscious and can talk with the surgeon.

A synthetic product, amidone is much cheaper than morphine, which is extracted from opium. Three U.S. drug manufacturers have already applied for permission to produce it, and others are interested. Although distribution can be controlled under present drug laws, U.S. Narcotics Commissioner H. J. Anslinger thinks that, before its manufacture is approved, a new law is needed to limit its production; he doesn’t like to think of amidone’s becoming as common as aspirin.