Medical Uses
Ethylmorphine is used as an antitussive to treat dry cough. It is also a moderately strong analgesic. It is most widely used in ophthalmology for removing inflammation products from the eyes, inducing miosis and relief of various symptoms. Ethylmorphine was once used, as was heroin, to attempt to cure morphine addiction, including being present in patent medicines sold for this purpose. Ethylmorphine is being investigated as a possible substitution agent for maintenance treatment of opioid dependence as it can quell withdrawal symptoms and also has a ceiling effect, i.e. additional doses beyond a certain level produce no extra euphoria. In France, tablets are available without prescription (under the name Neo-Codion, an antitussive), and they are commonly used by heroin-addicts to avoid withdrawal symptoms.
Dionine is an ingredient of Schlesinger's Analgesic Solution, invented in the first decade of the previous century for use as a general-purpose analgesic as well as drops for painful eye conditions and an antitussive. The combination, as given in the 1913 US Pharmacopoeia and other national formularies, is 15 mg dionine hydrochloride, 10 mg morphine sulphate, and 125 µg scopolamine hydrobromide per cc. Some sources give the recipe as 1/4 grain dionine, 1/6 grain morphine, and ~29/810 grain of scopolamine; in some cases the salts of morphine and dionine may differ.
Dionine eye drops are used to cleanse the eye of inflammation products, and is generally seen to be somewhat more effective than codeine and benzylmorphine for this purpose.
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