Placebo-controlled studies have demonstrated that patients treated with opioid antagonists had fewer drinking days, lower rates of resumed heavy drinking, and reduced alcohol craving, when compared with placebo-treated patients. Patients who received an opioid antagonist were also less likely to drink heavily if they sampled alcohol during treatment. One study also demonstrated that patients wh...

DURING the past two years the rapidly growing experimental and clinical literature on the use of opiate receptor antagonists (e.g., naloxone) in the treatment of stroke has produced conflicting findings and generated a considerable degree of controversy. Some of the interlaboratory differences may have resulted from differences in methodology or design: for example, choice of species, ischemic ...

The antinociceptive effects of MDMA and morphine were examined in rats using the tail-flick and hot-plate analgesiometric tests. MDMA, in the dose range of 1.5-6.0 mg/kg IP, produced a dose-dependent elevation in hot-plate latency, but did not elevate tail-flick latency. In contrast, morphine (2-8 mg/kg, IP) produced analgesia on both the tail-flick and hot-plate tests in a dose-dependent manne...

While opioid dependence has more treatment agents available than other abused drugs, none are curative. They can, however, markedly diminish withdrawal symptoms and craving, and block opioid effects due to lapses. The most effective withdrawal method is substituting and tapering methadone or buprenorphine. alpha-2 Adrenergic agents can ameliorate untreated symptoms or substitute for agonists if...

AIMS The current study assessed the in vivo antagonist properties of nalmefene using procedures previously used to characterize the opioid antagonists naloxone, naltrexone, 6beta-naltrexol and nalbuphine. MAIN METHODS ICR mice were used to generate antagonist dose-response curves with intraperitoneal (i.p.) nalmefene against fixed A(90) doses of morphine in models of morphine-stimulated hyper...

Numerous neurotransmitter systems [e.g. dopamine, gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), the endogenous opioids, and serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT)] are involved in the regulation of alcohol consumption. Because 5-HT reuptake inhibitors and opioid antagonists modify the activity of neurotransmitters, it has been hypothesized that they may also mediate the desire to drink alcohol by acting on sp...

DURING the past two years the rapidly growing experimental and clinical literature on the use of opiate receptor antagonists (e.g., naloxone) in the treatment of stroke has produced conflicting findings and generated a considerable degree of controversy. Some of the interlaboratory differences may have resulted from differences in methodology or design: for example, choice of species, ischemic ...

Objective. We hypothesized that initiation of a new disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD) for treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) would decrease the use of corticosteroids, nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), and narcotics.Methods. Using administrative databases, we assembled 4 retrospective cohorts of RA patients (1998-2005) and identified 5 groups initiating DMARD regimens...

In the description of parental psychopathology in narcotic dependence, emphasis has hitherto largely lain on the identification of addictogenic characteristics rather than on the identification of psychological distress. In an attempt to remedy the situation, we compared the parents of 21 male narcotic dependant patients with an equal number of matched controls. Using the General Health Questio...