Observations on the Metabolism of Morphine to Hydromorphone in Pain Patients

Morphine is one of several opioids used to treat chronic pain. Because of its high abuse potential, urine drug tests can confirm "consistency with prescribed medications." Hydromorphone is a recently described minor metabolite of morphine, but few data exist on the characteristics of this metabolic pathway or the relationship of morphine and hydromorphone between and within subjects. Part I of this retrospective study shows that formation of hydromorphone from morphine is concentration-dependent and possibly saturated at high concentrations of morphine. In addition, the percentage of ultra-rapid metabolizers and poor metabolizers can be determined using the lower asymptote of a sigmoidal mathematical fit and are estimated to be 0.63 and 4.0%, respectively. Expected limits of morphine and hydromorphone (as a result of morphine metabolism) concentrations in the urine were established. Part II of this study used the metabolic ratio (hydromorphone-morphine) to determine the inter-patient and intra-patient variability in morphine metabolism to hydromorphone. Metabolic ratio values varied over a large range; 25-fold and 7-fold, respectively. The expected limits established in this study can assist in assessing the cause for possible variances in metabolism, such as drug interactions. The wide variability between and within subjects may explain unpredictable, adverse effects.