Etorphine 159droetorphine dose may actually make morphine withdrawal symptoms go
away, so further doses of either drug become unnecessary. Such a result
would be inconsistent with what is known about opiate dependence, but dis-
covery of new facts can change scientific understandings. Some researchers
believe that etorphine and dihydroetorphine have potential for treating opiate
addiction. Dihydroetorphine has been used for that purpose in China but
seems to produce even stronger dependence among heroin addicts thanmeth-
adone. So perhaps animal experiment findings that indicate low dependence
potential in dihydroetorphine cannot be extrapolated to humans.
Drug interactions.Giving etorphine and morphine together increases pain
relief in mice, while the etorphine does not seem to increase the strength of
opiate dependence in the combination. Researchers speculate that the im-
proved pain control might be great enough to allow much smaller doses of
morphine in humans than would otherwise be needed, which in turn would
greatly decrease the amount of dependence otherwise created by normal-size
morphine doses.
Cancer.Not enough scientific information to report.
Pregnancy.Not enough scientific information to report.
Additional scientific information may be found in:
Firn, S. “Accidental Poisoning by an Animal Immobilizing Agent.”Lancet2 (1973):
95–96.
“Immobilon: Curiously Strong.”Lancet2 (1977): 178.
Jasinski, D.R., J.D. Griffith, and C.B. Carr. “Etorphine in Man. 1. Subjective Effects and
Suppression of Morphine Abstinence.”Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics 17
(1975): 267–72.
Marcoux, G.S. “Etorphine: A New Opiate of Abuse?”Canadian Journal of Psychiatry 41
(1996): 261.
“Schedule II Control of Dihydroetorphine under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).”
Federal Register65 (2000): 69442–43.