The use of ketorolac was studied in patients undergoing lumbar laminectomy and those receiving lumbar fusion with or without instrumentation. Laminectomy patients in the ketorolac group used significantly less narcotic analgesic than did those in the narcotic treatment group. Ketorolac patients in both surgical categories experienced better pain control than narcotic group patients did. Laminec...

Cocaine and heroin often are abused together in a combination known as a "speedball," but relatively little is known about ways in which cocaine and heroin may interact to modify each other's abuse-related effects. The present study evaluated the discriminative stimulus effects of a speedball combination of cocaine and heroin. Three rhesus monkeys were trained to discriminate vehicle from a 10:...

Endogenous opioid systems are implicated in the reinforcing effects of ethanol and may play a substantial role in modulating the central reinforcing effects of ethanol early in ontogeny. This possibility was explored in the present study through the use of an olfactory conditioning paradigm with centrally administered ethanol serving as an unconditioned stimulus (US). In Experiment 1, newborn r...

Salvia divinorum is a hallucinogenic plant used by the Mazatec Indians of Mexico for traditional spiritual ceremonies. The active constituent, salvinorin A, induces profound hallucinations, however the biological mechanism for this action is not known. Affinity-binding studies suggest that the biologic activity of salvinorin A involves the kappa-opioid receptor. The purpose of this study was to...

Noxious stimulation of thin-fiber muscular afferents induces a reflexive respiratory suppression that we call "poststimulus respiratory suppression." In anesthetized, vagotomized, paralyzed, and artificially ventilated cats, morphine depressed the level of resting respiration (inhibitory effect on resting respiration) and attenuated the magnitude of the poststimulus respiratory suppression (exc...

The antinociceptive effects of the selective noradrenaline reuptake inhibitor antidepressant reboxetine and its interaction with various opioid and noradrenaline receptor subtypes were evaluated. Reboxetine (i.p.) induced a weak dose-dependent antinociceptive effect in acute pain, using the hotplate model. The reboxetine-induced antinociception was significantly inhibited by the opioid receptor...

OBJECTIVE To describe the role of opioid antagonists in the treatment of opioid-induced constipation and pruritus. DATA SOURCES A MEDLINE search was performed (1966-February 2000) for narcotics and opioid antagonists. Results were limited to English-language and clinical trials. Background information was obtained from pharmacology and pharmacotherapy references and review articles. Hand sear...

Chronic opioid antagonist treatment up-regulates opioid receptors and produces functional supersensitivity. Although opioid antagonists vary from neutral to inverse, the role of antagonist efficacy in mediating the chronic effects of opioid antagonists is not known. In this study, the effects of two putative inverse agonists (naltrexone, naloxone) and a putative neutral antagonist (6beta-naltre...

Acute stress increases ion secretion and permeability of rat colonic epithelium. However, it is not known if stress-induced mucosal changes are subject to adaptation. Wistar-Kyoto rats were exposed to either continuous water-avoidance stress (CS) for 60 min or intermittent stress (IS) for three 20-min periods. Distal colonic segments were mounted in Ussing Chambers, and ion-transport [short-cir...