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Disturbances in recent memory and behavioural changes caused by the treatment with intraventricular morphine administration (IVM) in severe cancer pain
Author(s) -
Pita G.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
human psychopharmacology: clinical and experimental
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.461
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1099-1077
pISSN - 0885-6222
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1099-1077(199807)13:5<315::aid-hup2>3.0.co;2-b
Subject(s) - morphine , anesthesia , vigilance (psychology) , psychology , neuropsychological test , neuropsychology , medicine , opioid , memory impairment , wechsler adult intelligence scale , cognition , psychiatry , neuroscience , receptor
The present study involves 20 patients with severe pain due to cancer, who were no longer in a position to receive pain relief from optimised doses of oral opioids. Thus, pain relief and satisfaction were compared with pain therapy and some aspects of the patients' neuropsychological functioning, i.e. recent memory and behavioural changes, during treatment with intraventricular administered morphine (IVM) as daily repeated doses (0·25–1 mg morphine injection) were estimated. These neuropsychological phenomena were investigated with a test‐battery that examined recent memory, and included verbal/nonverbal subtests, namely the NAI‐Figuren and the Wechsler Memory Scale tests, as well as a pilot test constructed by the author. The results suggested that the morphine injection caused disturbances in recent memory and provoked some behavioural changes. Low pain scores and high pain relief scores could also indicate that the treatment modality of morphine injection provided effective pain control. Nevertheless, relatively low scores were recorded in testing recent memory (numeric, verbal, visuospatial), vigilance, attention and processing. The pilot test proved to yield consistent result, in proximity to those of the Wechsler test. In conclusion, IVM administration seemed to be a simple and safe method for palliation of intractable cancer pain, but simultaneously caused significant memory and behavioural disturbances by interacting with different subtypes of receptors that belong to the opioid family. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.