# What narcotic painkiller was I given? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 7, 2016, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-narcotic-painkiller-was-i-given/774104 "2016-12-07T12:49:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2016, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-narcotic-painkiller-was-i-given/774104/21 "2016-12-08T13:26:01Z")
BTW, here’s a cite about its Demerol’s failings: [Is Meperidine the Drug That Just Won't Die? - PMC](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3292527/) ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2016, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-narcotic-painkiller-was-i-given/774104/22 "2016-12-08T13:30:09Z")
> [@Polar\_Iceman](#): > > Ie: these drugs kill the pain, and that’s it. > Why is that? Not everyone gets an euphoric response to opioids. Brain chemistry is quite individual and very complex. I don’t know if anyone’s come up with a credible hypothesis for why some people don’t get the ‘rush’. ---
**Author:** ![Honey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honey/32/5074_2.png) [@Honey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Honey)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2016, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-narcotic-painkiller-was-i-given/774104/23 "2016-12-08T14:01:15Z")
24 years ago I was given Demerol during my labor. It did nothing really except “take the egde off”, until I could get my Epidural. Now _that_ was heaven. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2016, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-narcotic-painkiller-was-i-given/774104/24 "2016-12-08T19:43:14Z")
> [@Polar\_Iceman](#): > > Could you elaborate on this some more? > Context: > I suffer from long term chronic pain. Treatment for this has ranged from Oxycontin to Morphine to Fentanyl. > While each, depending on the dose, is effective in reducing my pain to tolerable levels, I have NEVER experienced any “high” or other pleasurable effect such as others have described in upstream posts. > Ie: these drugs kill the pain, and that’s it. > Why is that? Because they’re the drugs that you need, and you’re taking them in the correct dose. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2016, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-narcotic-painkiller-was-i-given/774104/25 "2016-12-08T22:55:13Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > Because they’re the drugs that you need, and you’re taking them in the correct dose. As a recovering opioid addict, clean for over 26 years, I must say that when I was given appropriate doses of morphine for my MI 19 years ago and many years later oxycodone post-op for shoulder surgery, the pain diminished greatly. I also got a bit of the old ‘hug from god’ that made using opioids so attractive, too. Some folks just don’t feel the rush, even when using ‘recreational’ amounts. I’m sorry, **nearwildheaven** , it seems all I’m doing in this thread is nitpicking and naysaying things you posted. That really is not my intent. ☹ You are very knowledgeable about medicine and physiology and pharmacology and I’m glad you’re here to share that knowledge. But I just have a lot of strong opinions about opioids. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2016, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-narcotic-painkiller-was-i-given/774104/26 "2016-12-09T01:00:16Z")
No, Qadgop, I understand exactly where you’re coming from. We’re approaching this from two very different perspectives. I forgot to add earlier that the difference between addiction and dependence is this: If you are addicted to drugs, your quality of life goes down. If you are dependent on drugs, it goes up. Plus, people who are dependent on pain meds, or other meds with addictive potential, rarely get any kind of high from them and have little or no desire to stay on them if the reason they are taking them goes away. They may need to be tapered off them to avoid withdrawals, but they do not want to increase the dose or acquire them by unethical means. I definitely agree that there are many situations where Demerol is NOT the agent of choice, but others where it is. ---
**Author:** ![brainstall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/35a633/32.png) [@brainstall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brainstall)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2016, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-narcotic-painkiller-was-i-given/774104/27 "2016-12-09T02:29:29Z")
Right before surgery on my knee, one of the doctors in the operating room injected something into my IV, I think. I remember the sensation of a wave of feel good washing over me. I was aware enough to ask what it was and remember being told “Demerol”, and telling them that I liked that one, a lot. Even the morphine they gave me after the surgery for pain didn’t feel like that, though I was very much in need of the pain relief. I was given Dilaudid for another injury I was hospitalized for. Mostly I remember it making me puke, so they added a Gravol chaser, which helped me not throw up. I wasn’t in a lot of pain, but hospitals are boring and noisy and it helped me get through the night. ---
**Author:** ![ZurBob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/71e660/32.png) [@ZurBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZurBob)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2016, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-narcotic-painkiller-was-i-given/774104/28 "2016-12-09T03:39:54Z")
[quote=“Napier, post:1, topic:774104”] …I’m curious what it was I was given for pain about 30 years ago. So I’m simply curious. From this description \*\*is it possible to guess what painkiller this was?[/\*\*QUOTE] Not an Anesthesiologist here but: From the historical physiological / psychological detail that you recant, the answer is no. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-narcotic-painkiller-was-i-given/774104.md?page=1)