[STAGES OF OPIOID THERAPY OF CHRONIC PAIN IN RUSSIA: ANCIENT AND COMING].

There is history of the introduction and development of systemic and invasive opioid treatment of chronic cancer pain in Russia presented by the authors--experts with experience in thisfield over 30 years. The earliest researchers are no more among us, but their memory is still alive in the publications of the early 1980's. Along with the analysis of accumulated by Russian specialists positive clinical experience of opioids using, authors discuss main problems of organization and availability of adequate opioid therapy of chronic pain in Russia. Ways of further development ofpalliative care and pain management in oncology is discussed as well as.

[Changes in the concentration of beta-endorphin in the cerebrospinal fluid due to morphine analgesia in incurable oncologic patients]. / Izmeneniia kontsentratsii beta-éndorfina v likvore pod vliianiem spinal'noi analgezii morfinom u inkurabel'nykh onkologicheskikh bol'nykh.

Thirty cancer patients, clinical group IV, have been examined. It has been established that a persistent pain syndrome leads to lowering in beta-endorphin liquor level. Morphine analgesia is followed by beta-endorphin level elevation which directly depends on pain intensity and analgesia efficacy. Determination of changes in beta-endorphin liquor level may serve as a criterion of analgesia efficacy.

[Treatment of the pain syndrome in cancer patients by peridural administration of low doses of opiates]. / Lechenie bolevogo sindroma u onkologicheskikh bol'nykh metodom peridural'nogo vvedeniia malykh doz opiatov.

Peridural injections of morphine were given to 180 incurable cancer patients suffering chronic pain. The effectiveness of the said procedure as well as its side-effects were assessed. A relationship between the external respiration parameters, on the one hand, and drug dosage and time postinjection, on the other, was studied. The data obtained point to the effectiveness of the said method and suggest that it be used as a universal procedure for the treatment of intractable pain in incurable patients.