STUDY OBJECTIVE To evaluate the safety of high-dose IV narcotics in patients requiring analgesia for painful emergency department procedures. DESIGN Prospective multicenter clinical trial. SETTING Five adult urban EDs. METHODS AND MEASUREMENTS All patients received IV meperidine (1.5 to 3.0 mg/kg) titrated to analgesia followed by a painful procedure. Vital signs and alertness scale were ...

The present experiment evaluated whether prior treatment with naloxone could block the sensitization to opiate antagonist induced by single dose administration of pure agonist (morphine) or mixed agonist (buprenorphine). Food deprived male Wistar rats were trained to respond for food on a multiple-trial, fixed-interval 3 min schedule. Reinforcement was contingent upon a response within a 10-s l...

Flavone, dextrose and long swim stress exhibited antinociception. Degree of antinociception was greater with long swim stress as compared to flavone or dextrose. Combination of these treatments resulted in potentiation of antinociception. Naloxone (opioid antagonist; 5 mg/kg i.p.) antagonised flavone or long stress induced antinociception showing opioid medicated mechanism, however, failed to r...

BACKGROUND Naloxone, a specific opiate antagonist, is available for the treatment of newborn infants with respiratory depression that may be due to transplacentally acquired opiates. AIMS To determine if this treatment has any clinically important benefits, and whether there are any harmful effects. METHODS Randomised controlled trials that compared naloxone with placebo or no drug for newb...

Amy F. MacDonald,1,2 Charles J. Billington,3,4 and Allen S. Levine3–5 1Graduate Program in Neuroscience, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis 55415; 3Minnesota Obesity Center, Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Minneapolis 55417; 4Departments of 4Medicine and of 5Psychiatry, University of Minnesota, St. Paul 55414; and 2Minnesota Craniofacial Research Training Program, University of Minnesota, Mi...

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...

–Opioid overdose is a potentially life-threatening condition that requires immediate medical attention, often landing affected individuals into the emergency department. The longstanding treatment for opioid overdose has been naloxone, a pure opioid antagonist that reverses all signs of opioid intoxication. While effective as a reversal agent, naloxone has a half-life which is shorter than all ...

BACKGROUND Naltrexone is a competitive opioid antagonist and is often used to maintain abstinence in detoxified opioid dependent patients. However, it can precipitate an accelerated withdrawal when ingested by an individual with concurrent opioid use. METHODS We report the case of a 28 year old male with opioid dependence syndrome presenting with chaotic symptoms following ingestion of naltre...

Opioid agonists such as morphine have been found to exert excitatory and inhibitory receptor-mediated effects at low and high doses, respectively. Ultra-low doses of opioid antagonists (naloxone and naltrexone), which selectively inhibit the excitatory effects, have been reported to augment systemic morphine analgesia and inhibit the development of tolerance/physical dependence. This study inve...

In addition to buprenorphine monotherapy tablets, film and tablets combining 4 parts buprenorphine and 1 part naloxone (a mu opioid antagonist) are also being used in maintenance treatment for opioid dependence (Chiang and Hawks, 2003). (The original manufacturer of the combination tablets stopped supplying them but generic versions and new brand, Zubsolv®*, are now available.) In fact, the bup...