An examination of the origins of the laws prohibiting the use of opiates in the United States is provided. The primary focus is on how the development of these laws influenced a marked shift in the perception of opiates. Historically, opium and its derivatives have been perceived as efficacious medicines. However, during the past two centuries this perception has shifted to the point that conte...

The analysis of opiates is of vital interest in drug abuse monitoring and research. This review presents a general overview of the electrochemical methods used for detection and quantification of opiates in a variety of matrices. Emphasis has been placed on the voltammetric methods used for study and determination of morphine, codeine, and heroin. Specific issues that need to be solved and bett...

The pharmacological actions of opiate drugs are best characterized by sedation, analgesia, respiratory depression and changes in temperature. Repeated exposure to opiates, however, produces tolerance to these effects such that the magnitude of response is much reduced or absent. From this it must be assumed that the binding of opiates to their receptor sites activate certain biochemical events ...

R.J. KATZ and R.L. DOYLE, Enhanced responses to opiates produced by a single gene substitution in the mouse, European J. Pharmacol. 67 (1980) 301--303. Adult male mice of the C57B1/6J strain, or mice differing at a single locus from the above, pallid mice (C57Bl! 6J-pa), were treated with morphine or vehicle and two responses associated with opiate receptor stimulation were examined. In compari...

We compared the prevalence of prescription opiate misuse among 2 cohorts of felony probationers (N = 1525). Multiple logistic regression was utilized to determine the independent correlates of prescription opiate misuse among rural (n = 782) and urban (n = 743) probationers participating in an HIV-intervention study. After adjustment for differences in demographic and drug use characteristics, ...

PURPOSE Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) including medication allergies are not well-described among large national cohorts. This study described the most common documented medication allergies and their reactions among a national cohort of Veterans Affairs (VA) inpatients. METHODS We evaluated inpatient admissions in any VA Medical Center from 1 January 2000 to 31 December 2014. Each admission ...

We present a case of an 11-years old child who underwent several plastic procedures for massive skin necrosis of the right forearm. Pain control was achieved combining a thoracic epidural and a continuous brachial plexus block. The patient was successfully weaned from chronic opiates. Possible advantages (i.e. improved graft perfusion, speeded opiates weaning) and disadvantages (i.e. local anes...