narkos

Narkos is a term used in various languages to refer to narcotics, or drugs that induce numbness or sedation. The word derives from the Greek narkos, meaning numb or torpid, related to narkē, numbness, and to sleep. In modern medicine and pharmacology, narcotics typically denotes opioid analgesics that dull the senses and relieve pain. Classical examples include morphine, codeine, and fentanyl, as well as synthetic opioids. Narcotics can produce euphoria, sedation, and respiratory depression, and carry risks of dependence and abuse. Because of these risks, narcotics are regulated as controlled substances in most countries and prescribed under strict medical supervision.

Some jurisdictions use narcotic as a legal category that includes certain illegal drugs and prescribed opioids, whereas others reserve the term for legally controlled substances with opioid activity. In contemporary pharmacological usage, non-opioid analgesics such as acetaminophen or NSAIDs are not classified as narcotics.

Historically, the term narcotic was broader and sometimes included sedatives and anesthetics that induced sleep or insensibility. In medical literature today, the term is used with caution to avoid confusion with other CNS depressants like benzodiazepines or barbiturates, which are not opioids and are not always described as narcotics.

In some languages, "narkos" or cognates appear in medical and colloquial language to refer to narcotics; outside medicine the term can appear in literature and pop culture as a fictional or symbolic reference to sleep or drug-induced states.