Science Questions

How does my body absorb the morphine in my dry-feeling patch? Andy on the A120

Morphine gets into the brain and gives pain relief very effectively because it's very very soluble in fat. When you stick one of these patches on the body, the morphine is in a special reservior in the patch and it slowly comes through a membrane, and dissolves in the fat that's in your skin and your body and gets into the blood stream. And that's how you absorb it.

January 2007