Minimum amount of Morphine one can OD on ?

[BottleDryer]

Is there a reference table or chart for this kind of info on opioids/opiates ?

For the "average" healthy human being weighing anywere from 120 - 200lbs , what is the minimum amount of Morhphine you can overdose on ?

I know this might be a bit of a complicated question and it obviously varies from person to person.

 

[Swimmingdancer]

This is impossible to know. It completely varies from person to person, depends on the route of administration, your metabolism, what/if you eat, if you take any other drugs/alcohol, whether or not you have a tolerance to opioids, etc. There is no chart, they can't exactly do tests on humans to see what the minimum lethal dose is and the data from animals is not accurate in humans. For example the LD50, which is the amount required to kill 50% of a given test population, for oral morphine sulfate in rats is listed as 460 mg per kg of body weight, which could very easily kill a human. There are not a huge number of oral morphine overdoses, so to my knowledge there are no statistics on how much people took to cause a fatal OD.

The only thing you can do is start low. Starting oral morphine doses given for pain to a person not tolerant to opioids in a medical setting are usually around 10mg.

 

[cook]

There's no such data for humans

 

[tyrael]

....For example the LD50, which is the amount required to kill 50% of a given test population, for oral morphine sulfate in rats is listed as 460 mg per kg of body weight, which could very easily kill a human. There are not a huge number of oral morphine overdoses, so to my knowledge there are no statistics on how much people took to cause a fatal OD....

Not to mention the obvious vast physical, physiological, and mental difference between a rat, and humans lol. Tbh, LD50%'s don't tell a lot about a drug since as Swimmingdancer has (eloquently ) explained even (sometimes) vast differences between individuals (of the same species even ).

I'm surprised there hasn't been any (meta-)analyses of reports of OD's - to achieve a better understanding of this opiate. (hmm, a research topic?)

 

[Swimmingdancer]

^Yeah, that would be a good idea. It would be very difficult though. One of the problems (with any drug) are that when someone has an overdose requiring hospitalization or a fatality from the overdose, unless the person was under closely monitored medical supervision and given the drug by a health care worker, they often have no idea how much the person took. They can check the blood levels, but that doesn't always tell much. Then there are other complications like did the person have a tolerance, had they taken other drugs (which in many ODs they have), did they have other health problems, etc.

I had a friend who died from hydromorphone and as far as we know she hadn't taken any more than usual.

One study that would be interesting and easier would be to interview drug users (both recreational or therapeutic use), ask them if they have ever had an OD, did it require medical treatment, how much did they use and what drugs, what was their drug use history, etc. I dunno, maybe there is a study like that somewhere but I haven't come across any that go into that much detail.