When Physical and Social Pain Coexist: Insights Into Opioid Therapy

Social pain and opioid use.

2. Jefferson T, Del Mar C, Dooley L, et al. Physical interventions to interrupt or reduce the spread of respiratory viruses: systematic review. BMJ 2009; 339: b3675. 3. Jefferson T, Foxlee R, Del Mar C, et al. Interventions for the interruption or reduction of the spread of respiratory viruses [review]. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2007;(4):CD006207. 4. Loeb M, Dafoe N, Mahony J, et al. Surgical ...

Opioid therapy for chronic pain.

N Engl J Med 2003;349:1943-53. Copyright © 2003 Massachusetts Medical Society. pium is a bitter, brown, granular powder derived from the seedpod of the poppy ( Papaver somniferum ). People have used opium for the relief of pain and suffering for thousands of years. Before the 19th century, opium was cultivated and used chiefly in the Middle East, whereas in Europe and the United States it was a...

When chronic pain can suppress the opioid kick: new insights from preclinical research.

O PIOIDS are widely used for the management of intense acute pain, the management of cancer-related pain, or in an end-of-life palliative context. However, their regular use for chronic noncancer pain remains a subject of debate. Controlled preclinical studies may help to address the complex interaction between opioid pain relief and abuse potential, but they still remain scarce in the literatu...

Opioid receptors: Structural and mechanistic insights into pharmacology and signaling.

Opioid receptors are important drug targets for pain management, addiction, and mood disorders. Although substantial research on these important subtypes of G protein-coupled receptors has been conducted over the past two decades to discover ligands with higher specificity and diminished side effects, currently used opioid therapeutics remain suboptimal. Luckily, recent advances in structural b...

Long-Term Opioid Therapy for Chronic Pain.