It may sound a little nutty, but your friends are partially correct. Nutmeg, a spice commonly used to flavor lattes, sweets, and other foods has also been reported to produce a high that is similar to the one obtained with marijuana. Originating from the Myristica fragans tree in Indonesia, the seed is now grown and used globally, mostly for cooking but sometimes as a narcotic. However, for the...

Opiates have been implicated in learned helplessness (LH), a phenomenon known to be related to opiate stress-induced analgesia (SIA). In the present study, we investigated the role of opiates in the induction of LH and SIA under different conditions. Adult female Wistar rats were trained either by receiving 60 inescapable 1-mA footshocks (IS group, N = 114) or by confinement in the shock box (c...

Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is a major health, social and economic problem for which there are few effective treatments. The opiate antagonist naltrexone is currently prescribed clinically with mixed success. We have used naltrexone in an established behavioral assay (CAFE) in Drosophila melanogaster that measures the flies' preference for ethanol-containing food. We have confirmed that Drosophi...

Heroin overdose deaths have increased alarmingly in Chicago over the past decade. Naloxone, an opioid antagonist with no abuse potential, has been used to reverse opiate overdose in emergency medical settings for decades. We describe here a program to educate opiate users in the prevention of opiate overdose and its reversal with intramuscular naloxone. Participant education and naloxone prescr...

The nucleus accumbens shell region (sNAcc) and the ventral tegmental area (VTA) are two major nodes in the mesolimbic dopamine pathway, which mediates reward for various survival behaviors, including feeding. Opioids increase and maintain food intake when injected peripherally and centrally. Opioids in the VTA cause increased release of dopamine in the sNAcc, and when injected into either site,...

Acute opioid intoxication and overdose are common causes of presentation to emergency departments. Although naloxone, a pure opioid antagonist, has been available for many years, there is still confusion over the appropriate dose and route of administration. This article looks at the reasons for this uncertainty and undertakes a literature review from which a treatment algorithm is presented.

It may sound a little nutty, but your friends are partially correct. Nutmeg, a spice commonly used to flavor lattes, sweets, and other foods has also been reported to produce a high that is similar to the one obtained with marijuana. Originating from the Myristica fragans tree in Indonesia, the seed is now grown and used globally, mostly for cooking but sometimes as a narcotic. However, for the...

This experiment tested the hypothesis that perceived self-inefficacy in exercising control over cognitive stressors activates endogenous opioid systems. Subjects performed mathematical operations under conditions in which they could exercise full control over the cognitive task demands or in which the cognitive demands strained or exceeded their cognitive capabilities. Subjects with induced hig...

In the present study, the effects of intra-hippocampal microinjections of morphine (an opioid agonist) and naloxone (an opioid antagonist) were investigated in the formalin-induced orofacial pain in rats. Orofacial pain was induced by subcutaneous injection of formalin (1 %, 50 μl) in the upper lip region and the time spent of face rubbing was measured in 3-min blocks for 45 min. Formalin induc...

BACKGROUND Alcoholism is a chronic and potentially fatal disease. One of the therapeutic options is pharmacotherapy with the opioid antagonist naltrexone in combination with psychotherapy. OBJECTIVES The objective of this review was to compare the clinical effectiveness of naltrexone (50 mg/day) versus that of a placebo in alcohol-dependent patients receiving psychotherapy. METHODS The clin...