Morphine or Fentanyl: What You Should Know About These Potent Painkillers
Opioids remain a common prescription medication, given to patients most often to provide pain relief. In controlled settings and when taken as directed, these drugs can be highly effective in helping people feel less pain and manage chronic pain conditions. However, they can cause a euphoric high in some people, and it’s become quite common for people to end up addicted to opioids as they seek to feel that way again and again with drugs. Among the many types of opioids that are now available, morphine vs. fentanyl can at first seem like a confusing mix of similarities.
Both are analgesic (pain relief) opioids, and either one can be prescribed in many different medical situations. However, the two drugs are vastly different in terms of how they’re made, how potent they are, and their risks of potentially fatal overdoses.
Increasingly, fentanyl drug addiction treatment has become well-known due to the ongoing opioid crisis that is largely driven by illicit fentanyl that was illegally made. Opioids now cause the vast majority of fatal drug overdoses in America, and the majority of those are due to fentanyl.
Because this potent drug is often added to other substances like cocaine, methamphetamine, or heroin and sold to users who are unaware they’re about to take fentanyl, many people tragically overdose on a drug they didn’t even intend to take.
That’s why getting help for opioid addiction has become an urgent issue in many states, including California, where Muse Treatment has a world-class drug rehab treatment center. Let’s explore how morphine and fentanyl are similar and different, and how you can get help with overcoming opioid addiction.
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How Do Morphine and Fentanyl Compare in Strength?
To say morphine vs. fentanyl are in different levels of strength isn’t putting it strongly enough. Understanding the surge in fentanyl overdoses in Los Angeles and around the country requires understanding just how potent fentanyl is and how just a tiny amount can cause a fatal overdose.
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, fentanyl is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine, which is why it’s considered extremely dangerous. As much as just two milligrams of fentanyl—about the amount that would fit on the tip of a pencil—is a potentially fatal dose of the drug.
The potency isn’t the only difference between these two drugs. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid, meaning it’s made in laboratories with no natural ingredients. Morphine, on the other hand, is a natural opioid that is made from the seed pods of opium poppy plants. Opium and codeine are other common examples of natural opioids.
Which Conditions Are Best Treated With Morphine vs. Fentanyl?
Another way to understand the difference between these substances is to learn how they are used in medical settings.
Morphine is a less potent opioid, with a slower onset of effect and longer duration compared to fentanyl. These factors make it better suited for longer-term pain relief, such as addressing chronic pain. Preferred medical uses include dealing with moderate to severe acute pain, such as after a heart attack or surgery, as well as long-term pain management for chronic pain.
Morphine is also frequently used in palliative care as a way of helping patients with terminal illnesses reduce their pain and suffering. Another potential use is with other medications for procedural sedation to calm patients before a medical procedure.
As previously stated, fentanyl is much more potent than fentanyl, with a rapid onset of effects and shorter duration of overall effectiveness. Because of its strength, fentanyl is more commonly used to address severe, acute pain, traumatic injuries, or severe burns, for example.
It’s also frequently used as an anesthetic agent or along with an anesthetic in surgeries that require a rapid onset of effects and a short overall duration of effectiveness. Due to its potency and fast-acting nature, fentanyl is also a common choice for chronic pain management in patients with cancer. It can also be a pain reliever during certain medical procedures, like an endoscopy.
What Are the Most Common Side Effects of Morphine and Fentanyl?
While the drugs have many differences, morphine vs. fentanyl both can cause many of the same side effects, just like other opioids. Opioid side effects can include:
- Drowsiness
- Dizziness or confusion
- Sedation
- Relaxation
- Euphoria
- Nausea or vomiting
- Constipation
- Dry mouth
- Itchy skin
- Slowed or shallow breathing (potentially slowing down to a dangerous level)
Less common side effects of opioids include changes to heart rate or blood pressure, mood changes, urinary retention, sweating, and hallucinations.
What Are the Risks of Addiction With Morphine and Fentanyl?
It’s no secret that opioids, while effective in certain situations in managing pain, can be highly addictive. In past decades, many people who eventually ended up using street heroin first started by taking prescription painkillers and quickly got hooked on the euphoric, sedative effects of these drugs.
If you’re trying to understand morphine vs. fentanyl, it’s essential to realize that both can be addictive, and opioid addiction can destroy lives. While it isn’t clear why some people will become addicted to opioids while others won’t, in most cases of addiction, people will start to take the drug more frequently or higher doses as they seek the sense of euphoria from opioids.
Eventually, they become physically dependent on the drug, and then they find themselves addicted and suffering withdrawal symptoms if they try to stop.
Symptoms of an opioid addiction (clinically known as opioid use disorder) include:
- Physical dependence on the drug
- Experiencing withdrawal symptoms like sweating or cravings if they don’t use the drug
- Increasing the amount or frequency of using the drug
- Strong physical and emotional cravings to take the drug
- Drowsiness
- Sleep changes
- Isolating from friends or loved ones
- Changes to hygiene or fitness habits
- Unexplained weight loss
Once someone is addicted to opioids, they’re likely to experience distressing, uncomfortable withdrawal symptoms if they try to quit, with symptoms starting in as little as six hours after their last use.
Withdrawal symptoms can include sweating, anxiety or agitation, cramps, aches, nausea or vomiting, and insomnia. People might feel like they have the flu, and they’ll also likely experience intense cravings or urges to use the drug again. Withdrawal symptoms tend to peak after a few days.
Overcome Addiction to Morphine vs. Fentanyl With Help From Muse Treatment
Now that you understand the differences and similarities between morphine vs. fentanyl, you also realize that both opioids can be addictive, and that opioid addiction can quickly destroy lives. If you or a loved one is struggling with opioid use disorder, it’s important to accept that this addiction is a disease, just like why people drink alcohol, a dependence on the drug causes it, and a need for the drug.
Help is available, and it’s possible to put addiction behind you once and for all and achieve long-lasting recovery after opioid use. Call Muse Treatment Center at 800-426-1818 today to learn more about how we can help you improve.
