What Causes Confusion After An Overdose Of Morphine?

Posted on Sun, 13 Jul 2014

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Sun, 13 Jul 2014 Answered on

Sat, 2 Aug 2014 Last reviewed on

Question : I was given 18 mg of morphine by a paramedic yesterday. The hospital said it was an overdose and gave me another drug to reverse it. Today I feel terrible and very confused. Was this an overdose? Is how I am feeling normal?
XXXXXXX

Answered by Dr. Vinay Bhardwaj (2 hours later)

Brief Answer:
Narcotics are always managed carefully

Detailed Answer:
Hello XXXXXXX Thanks for coming to HealthCareMagic. I'm sorry to hear about the harrowing experience you had. The things are pretty tricky. The problem is that Narcotics have variable effects on people. For a person who has had narcotics before, they need higher doses, on the other hand a person who has never been exposed to them would be very sensitive and need a lower dose.

In your case. From what you have described. The paramedics would have given you a dose they tried to calculate from eyeballing your weight. After they gave you the dose, they might have noticed you were having a bad reaction (narcotics can interfere with your breathing), so they gave you a reversal agent.

So, to sum up, they might have over-estimated the dose that you need, when they saw that you were having trouble, they gave you the reversal agent.

I hope that makes sense.

Vinay

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar