Volume 1 “The effects of morphine and oxycodone on memory in humans”

Opiates have been commonly used for the management of pain for many years. Despite this, there is a surprising lack of research into the effects of opiates on cognition, with far more research having been carried out on other classes of psychotropic drugs. This paper will outline why it is important to understand the cognitive effects of opiates, in particular the short acting opiates morphine and oxycodone. It will review past research into the area to demonstrate the level of current understanding. The author is particularly interested in the results of a recent paper (Kamboj et al., 2005) that demonstrated an apparent retrograde memory impairment caused by morphine. As well as providing clinically relevant information about the cognitive effects of opiates, this finding also provides us with some theoretical insights into the normal workings of memory and has implications for future research.