Morphine doesn't do anything for me....

[Coldemort]

I've been given liquid morphine for short term pain relief after surgery. And..... nothing. Paracetamol is doing a better job of pain relief. I'm not even getting the much anticipated nice wooziness.

Is morphine immunity a thing? I've been googling and although theres lots about building up tolerance I cant find anything regarding it just not doing anything.

How soon after surgery?

It doesn't do much for me (that I can feel) - nor does codeine. I have been meaning to ask if there's some kind of genetic resistance to opiates or something - or whether I've been taking duff stuff

(I don't actually think the NHS hands over fake oramorph, BTW )

Its morphine sulphate and I've been taking the full 10mg. I'm 5 days after surgery. Having never had it before I had quite high hopes (pun intended).
Thinking about it, I'm the same with codeine. Again I find paracetamol better.

Some people are resistant to opioids, there was a study done in Norway on a particular genetic mutation, people with one copy of this gene needed much larger doses of opioids and those with 2 copies appeared to be totally resistant to opioids.

Hmm I don’t know but I’d be interested in the answer as if there is something, I think I’ve got the opposite! Whenever I’ve had something like codeine it has massively affected me more than it should for the dose if you see what I mean, so I now would always ask for half the dose they were going to give. I seem particularly sensitive to it. (Have not had morphine but pethadine and codeine/cocodamol

google"norway opioid resistance study" and it should come up

Are you a redhead?

I dont get much pain relief from opiates, but they do make me feel quite ill.
Lose/lose

Is there a redhead opioid resistance link @PatMullins?

I have to take long-term opioids but find lower doses do nothing, but equally I am able to stop taking them at any time without any kind of withdrawal. Am also a redhead.

@PatMullins I was going to ask the sane thing! Apparently red heads have more tolerance to opioids, more prone to fainting and bleed more🤷‍♀️

Morphine sort of worked for me but it made me puke for England and spout unintellectual crap out. It didn't work quite so much when I stood up to go to the toilet and nearly passed out in agony. This was after I'd told the nurse that I was totally pain free and was discharging myself. I ended up stopping for another 4 days and not allowed anymore because of how much I was throwing up

I’m a red head and can vouch for those things and when it’s happened to me in a medical setting I’ve had it mentioned a few times by the HCPs.

Just read the Norway study. Interesting but also a bit worrying as to how pain relief might not work for me when I really need it (thinking end of life care).
It's not causing any adverse effects, it's just not doing anything at all. Although I'm itching all over, maybe coincidence???
Might be a stupid question, but with it being a genetic thing o know both my parents respond well to it - would that be possible?
And I'm not a red head, but am a pale skinned celt

Oramorph has no affect on me either....other than making me sick. Just looking at the bottle makes me heave 🤮

Also I'm a nightmare at the dentist - I need tons of anaesthesia, but they don't believe that I can still feel it.

@Coldemort
It makes me itch like crazy too!

@Coldemort itching is a side effect of morphine.

Morphine is fine for me, but I got zilch from tramadol. So resistance to certain opiates is definitely a thing

Tramadol and low doses of morphine do nothing for me either. To be fair, what does work for me is diazepam but my doctor won’t prescribe that for me anymore. A nightmare for those rare occasions I slip a disc and can’t move!!

Chosen - only vaguely related to the OP but related to your post - I had a long term spasm in my shoulder recently, where it had partly dislocated and got stuck. The dr refused to prescribe anything along the lines of diazepam and insisted the best way forward was to keep treating the pain as long as I needed with my morphine, rather than getting the muscle to relax with a short course so it could fix itself. Yes I'm aware diazepam etc are highly addictive, but a short course is surely preferable to recommending increased and continuous use of my emergency opiates!

People with autism can also have a higher pain and anaesthesia threshold. My son takes A LOT to knock out. As it is he is 5ft, 5in tall age 11 but he had to have his appendix out and the anaesthetist said he needed quite a dose to anaesthetise him. He has a very high pain threshold and oramorph does nothing for him.

The Norway study is only one example, there are lots of genes which can affect the way you respond to opioids, they make me very drowsy but benzodiazepines have very little effect on me(10mg diazepine makes me a little woozy but 2mg knocks my 6ft2 dh out for hours). I also find the non-drowsy antihistamines knock me out more than the drowsy ones.

We're realising more and more how genes can affect responses to medicines.

I'm also autistic and have increased resistance to anaesthetic- though that's supposed to be linked to my EDS rather than my autism (though again, those two things seem to be linked)

The itching is definitely a common side effect of the morphine. It does sound like the opiates aren’t really helping. Can you take anti-inflammatories?

Interesting... I've been told twice by healthcare professionals (nurse & consultant) that I've an exceptionally high pain threshold. I had a similar operation last year and the nurse said she was astounded I was able to stand up nevermind be walking around. I wonder if that's linked?