Morphine is invaluable in the management of severe pain for many people. Both patients and doctors are sometimes anxious about using morphine so it is important to be aware that, when used to treat severe pain, morphine is not addictive, it does not shorten life-expectancy and is safe if the dose is matched to the pain. This last point is really the answer to your question in that the correct dose of morphine is the dose that gets rid of the pain. The actual dose needed to do this varies tremendously from patient to patient. The dose should always therefore be matched against the needs of the individual. This means that there is no actual upper limit to the dose that can be given.

Morphine does have side-effects. Two which are common are constipation and nausea and with higher doses of the morphine additional drugs to relieve or prevent these symptoms may be needed.

Provided higher-doses of morphine produce better pain control, without undue side-effects, then the dose can be increased progressively. But it is essential that this increase should be carefully monitored by your medical team.