Morphine is considered a(n) ________ drug because it decreases pain.
1: hallucinogen
2: stimulant
3: opioid
4: antipsychotic
Answer: 3: opioid
Morphine is referred to as an opiate drug as it is a powerful painkiller that is obtained from the opium poppy plant. The opioid class of drugs is a group of such substances, which are able to interact with certain receptors in the brain and body, and these interactions are likely to lead to pain relief. Morphine acts by attaching to these particular opioid receptor sites, principally mu-opioid receptors, which have a major impact on the pathways leading to pain modulation and reward. Through key binding, it impedes the conduction of pain information along these pathways and causes the feeling of pleasantness. It absorbs a considerable part as medicine resource in a medial environment especially for treatment of pain, most particularly, in a post-operative situation and in the case of chronic pain conditions. As compared to hallucinogens, psychoactive substances, or antipsychotics, it is morphine that possesses the most important therapeutic property, namely, that of the super opioid analgesic due to its opioid nature.
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