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Opioid Dependence

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Substance Use Disorders

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Abstract

The term opiate is used to designate a group of drugs that are naturally occurring in the poppy plant Papaver somniferum. They include thebaine, opium, codeine, and morphine. Opioids are substances that act on opioid receptors to produce morphine-like effects. They include the opiates. The opioids are divided into three major groups—naturally occurring, semisynthetic, and synthetic. The naturally occurring opioids are the opiate drugs. Semisynthetic opioids are drugs that are made by minor alterations of the opiate drug molecules. Synthetic opioids are manufactured in the laboratory independent of the poppy plant. Opioids can further be divided into agonist, partial agonist, agonist-antagonist, and pure antagonist drugs (Schumacher et al., Opioid agonist and antagonist. In: Katzung BG, Trevor AJ (ed) Basic and clinical pharmacology, 13th edn. McGraw-Hill Education, New York, p 531–551, 2015). Because of the tendency of opioid drugs to produce somnolence, they are often referred to as narcotics, a word that comes from narcosis, meaning sleep.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. East Central HealthNet Family Medicine Residency Program, Meridian, Mississippi, USA

    H. Thomas Milhorn MD, PhD (Director, Didactics Section, Formerly Professor of Family Medicine, Professor of Physiology and Biophysics, and Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior)

  2. University of Mississippi School of Medicine, Jackson, Mississippi, USA

    H. Thomas Milhorn MD, PhD (Director, Didactics Section, Formerly Professor of Family Medicine, Professor of Physiology and Biophysics, and Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior)

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Milhorn, H.T. (2018). Opioid Dependence. In: Substance Use Disorders. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63040-3_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63040-3_6

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