Custom essays on Research Article Critique

Peart, J.N. and G.J. Gross. (March 16, 2004). “Morphine-Tolerant Mice Exhibit a Profound and Persistent Cardioprotective Phenotype.” Circulation, 109, pp.1219-1222

Literature review
The authors of the article “Morphine-Tolerant Mice Exhibit a Profound and Persistent Cardioprotective Phenotype”, J.N. Peart and G.J. Gross focus on the study of the impact of morphine on morphine-tolerant mice and their cardiovascular system. As the matter of fact, the problem of the impact of morphine on different organs and systems of human body as well as that of animals is very important but this problem is apparently under-searched because previous researches focused mainly on the problem of the development of dependence on morphine.
In this respect, it is important to lay emphasis on the fact that the use of morphine is still quite widely spread in the contemporary health care system. Many researchers (Weil, et al, 1998) point out that morphine is used as one of the major remedies for the treatment of acute pain. On the other hand, the use of morphine and opioids can lead to negative effects, such as the development of dependency and addiction to drugs. In such a context, researches naturally focus their attention on the mechanism of the development of such dependence in humans as well as in other species. However, the profound attention of researchers to the mechanism of the development of dependency and addiction to morphine and opioids leads to the lack of attention to the impact of morphine on different organs of human body, such as heart, for instance.
In such a context, Peart and Gross focused their attention on the study of the impact of morphine on cardiovascular system of their subjects, which were morphine-tolerant mice. This was a new trend in the study of the impact of morphine because it expands the traditional scope of the research and focuses on the functioning of the specific organ, heart in morphine-tolerant mice. In this regard, it is important to lay emphasis on the fact that researchers used traditionally mice to test medicaments and their impact on living body. Researchers use findings of studies involving mice to carry researchers involving humans. At any rate, findings of the study using mice can be extrapolated on humans. In this respect, Peart and Gross followed the traditional way of study.
At the same time, they researched a very important aspect of the impact of morphine on organisms. Basically, morphine is still widely used in the modern medicine and many researchers (North, et al, 1987) warn against the potential negative impact of morphine on humans, especially after surgeries, when patients get morphine treatment to ease the acute pain. Therefore, the study conducted by Peart and Gross extended the traditional scope of the study of morphine and its impact on health. On the other hand, their study was not absolutely new because other researchers (Miki, et al, 1998) were aware of possible negative effects of the morphine treatment on health, although they did not conduct specific researches on the impact of morphine on the cardiovascular system. Moreover, the further research is needed to understand the impact of morphine on human health and many researchers (Schultz, et al, 1998) proved that findings of the studies involving animals did not always match findings of the studies involving humans. In addition, it is important to understand that researchers (Schultz, et al, 1995) do not believe that, in spite of potential risks and threats associated with the use of morphine and opioids in the treatment of patients, it is still impossible to ban or limit consistently the use of morphine and opioids. In such a context, the study conducted by Peart and Gross can help to identify potential risks associated with the use of morphine and develop effective strategies which can help to minimize such risks.