Morphine Consumption in a Tertiary Care Hospital in Eastern Nepal

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Oral morphine is extracted from a naturallyoccurring opium plant. It has been reviewed as a potentanalgesic and according to the World Health Organization(WHO) its use is recommended as the drug of choice for thetreatment of severe pain, including cancer pains and variousother types of pains. However, a large proportion of doctorsare hesitant to prescribe morphine because of the unfoundedfear of addiction. The main aim of this study was to assess themorphine prescribing pattern of doctors in conformity withthe international guidelines.Material and Methods: The present study was a descriptiveanalysis of oral morphine prescriptions made within a 6months period, between 2016 and 2017. All the prescriptionsfor the patients with pain under oral morphine in the hospitalrecords were reviewed.Results: The results showed that (53.6%) of all morphineprescriptions were from the Oncology Department/OPD,while the newly created Day Care Unit accounted for 43.9% ofthe prescriptions. Almost nil prescriptions were seen from theLabour ward. Only 1.2% of all the prescriptions conformed tointernational guidelineConclusion: The results reflected that there was a needfor more education and advocacy programmes to increaseawareness among doctors about morphine prescriptions.The cancer study revealed the useful information related toepidemiology of cancer among both the genders in Nepalwhich will prove to be useful in health planning and futureresearch.