Although opioids are highly effective for the treatment of pain, they are also known to be intensely addictive. There has been a massive research investment in the development of opioid analgesics, resulting in a plethora of compounds with varying affinity and efficacy at all the known opioid receptor subtypes. Although compounds of extremely high potency have been produced, the problem of tole...

AIMS This study describes the use of prescribed drugs among women in opioid maintenance treatment (OMT) prior to, and during, pregnancy. DESIGN This cohort study was based on data from two nationwide databases: the Medical Birth Registry of Norway and the Norwegian Prescription Database. SETTING Norway, 2004-2010. PARTICIPANTS OMT drugs were dispensed to 138 women with 159 pregnancies. ...

background: a number of drugs are used to control opioid withdrawal symptoms during detoxification. tramadol, as a partial opioid agonist, has been widely used to manage acute and chronic pains. the present study was designed to assess the effectiveness of tramadol in methadone-assisted detoxification.   methods: in a double-blind randomized clinical trial 72 opioid-dependent patients as define...

The rewarding properties of some abused drugs are thought to reside in their ability to increase striatal dopamine levels. Similar increases have been shown in response to expectation of a positive drug effect. The actions of opioid drugs on striatal dopamine release are less well characterized. We examined whether heroin and the expectation of heroin reward increases striatal dopamine levels i...

7,8,9 disorder. Further it requires skill and training, strict asepsis and careful observation of the patient. With parenteral opioids alone, the side effects like respiratory depression are intolerable. Thus, there is a need for choosing drug classes that will overlap for analgesia but not for side effects. Drug class that fits these requirements is that of NSAIDs . The advent of NSAIDs that s...

We describe 5 cases of immediate-type reactions to systemic corticosteroids observed during the last 2 decades in boys aged 2, 4, 8, 9, and 10 years. Symptoms ranged from generalized urticaria and angioedema to anaphylactic shock immediately after administration. Oral betamethasone was implicated in 2 cases, oral prednisolone in 2 cases, and intravenous prednisolone in 1 case. The parents of pa...

OBJECTIVE After prolonged opioid exposure, children develop opioid-induced hyperalgesia, tolerance, and withdrawal. Strategies for prevention and management should be based on the mechanisms of opioid tolerance and withdrawal. PATIENTS AND METHODS Relevant manuscripts published in the English language were searched in Medline by using search terms "opioid," "opiate," "sedation," "analgesia," ...

BACKGROUND Driving under the influence of drugs (DUID) is a term used to designate the action of driving an automobile after the consumption of drugs or medications other than alcohol that interfere with the capacity to operate a vehicle safely. Unlike recreational drugs, prescription medications pose a unique challenge to those attempting to harness their benefits yet protect the driving publi...

The gut is a neurological organ, which implies that many neuroactive drugs such as opioid analgesics can seriously disturb gastrointestinal function, because many of the transmitters and transmitter receptors present in the brain are also found in the enteric nervous system. One of the most common manifestations of opioid-induced bowel dysfunction is constipation which results from blockade of ...

Recently, δ opioid receptor agonists have been proposed to be attractive targets for the development of novel antidepressants. Several studies revealed that single treatment of δ opioid receptor agonists produce antidepressant-like effects in the forced swimming test, which is one of the most popular animal models for screening antidepressants. In addition, subchronic treatment with δ opioid re...