ABSTRACT
When Paracelsus (Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, 1493-1541) stated that he would not like to be a physician without opium, he underlined the importance of opium, which was then widely used as an analgesic, antitussive, hypnotic, sedative and tranquillizer and in the treatment of diarrhoea. The use of opium itself as a universal drug has since become a part of history: opium is no longer used in therapy, but it is used as the starting material for the production of alkaloids, such as morphine and codeine. Today, natural and synthetic opioids are prescribed as analgesics and antitussives and in the treatment of diarrhoea. A great variety of synthetic hypnotics, sedatives and anxiolytics are used to treat insomnia and many different psychiatric disorders. Thus, narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances are as indispensable in the field of medicine today as opium was in the past.
