Effects of Morphine on Uptake of Glucose and Synthesis of Glycogen in Muscle of Normal and Chronically Morphinized Rats

Abstract

THERE is as yet no satisfactory explanation for the phenomenon of drug addiction. Morphine-induced biological dependence of a type which might be the basis of addiction in higher animals has not been demonstrated in unicellular organisms which have metabolisms independent of nervous or hormonal control, and no convincing explanation for such induced dependence arises from knowledge of the effects of morphine on the nervous system alone. There is little doubt that the chemical basis of addiction involves hormonal systems, and we further suspect that the site of addicting action may lie in mechanisms whereby hormonal effects are super-imposed on the more primitive, intrinsic controlling mechanisms of cellular metabolism.