Opium News

September 18, 2024

Top Headlines

Mechanisms of How Morphine Relieves Pain Mapped out

Aug. 29, 2024 — Researchers describe the neural processes behind how morphine relieves pain. This is valuable knowledge because the drug has such serious side ...

An Implantable Sensor Could Reverse Opioid Overdoses

Aug. 14, 2024 — A new implantable sensor could reverse opioid overdoses. The device rapidly releases naloxone when an overdose is ...

New Analgesic Could Replace Opioids Over the Long Term

July 17, 2024 — Opioids have long been known as natural substances with substantial pharmacological effect. They have been used as effective painkillers. Researchers have now identified a natural active substance that may prove to be an effective alternative to ...

Designing Safer Opioids

July 17, 2024 — Opioid medications offer people relief from debilitating pain, but these drugs come with dangers: the risk for addiction, miserable withdrawal symptoms and the potential for fatal overdose. Researchers have now identified a strategy to design safer ...

Latest Headlines

updated 8:01pm EDT

Ultra-Low-Dose Ketamine Can Curb Opioid Withdrawal

Sep. 17, 2024 — A pilot study showed that a small amount of ketamine can reduce or eliminate the withdrawal symptoms associated with quitting ...

Research Shows Protein Isoform Inhibitors May Hold the Key to Making Opioids Safer

July 16, 2024 — Researchers have identified a new way to make opioids safer, increasing the pain-relieving properties of opioids while decreasing unwanted side ...

Visualizing Addiction: How New Research Could Change the Way We Fight the Opioid Epidemic

July 15, 2024 — New research could transform how we understand the way opioids affect the brain. Despite significant discussion surrounding the ongoing opioid ...

Researchers Identify Brain Region Involved in Oxycodone Relapse

July 9, 2024 — Even years after they have recovered, a person who once struggled with alcohol or opioid addiction can relapse--and that relapse is more likely to occur during particularly stressful times. Now, ...

Brain Neurotransmitter Receptor Antagonist Found to Prevent Opioid Addiction in Mice

July 9, 2024 — New research has found a drug that treats insomnia works to prevent the addictive effects of the morphine opioids in mice while still providing ...

Experimental Drug Supercharges Medicine That Reverses Opioid Overdose

July 3, 2024 — Researchers have identified a compound that, in mice, makes naloxone much more effective at counteracting a drug ...

Study Examines Care Following Nonfatal Overdose Among; Identifies Effective Interventions and Gaps in Care

June 17, 2024 — Researchers found that among a cohort of 137,000 Medicare beneficiaries who experienced a nonfatal overdose in 2020, almost 24,000 (17.4%) ...

Myelination in the Brain May Be Key to 'Learning' Opioid Addiction

June 5, 2024 — Scientists have found that the process of adaptive myelination, which helps the brain learn new skills, can also promote addiction to ...

Faster Approach for Starting Extended-Release Naltrexone to Treat Opioid Use Disorder Shown Effective

May 8, 2024 — Starting people with opioid use disorder on extended-release, injectable naltrexone (XR-naltrexone) within five to seven days of seeking treatment is ...

A Common Pathway in the Brain That Enables Addictive Drugs to Hijack Natural Reward Processing

Apr. 18, 2024 — Researchers have uncovered a mechanism in the brain that allows cocaine and morphine to take over natural reward processing ...

Methamphetamine-Involved Psychiatric Hospitalizations Have Increased, Study Says

Aug. 16, 2024 — A new study that details trends among psychiatric hospitalizations between 2015-2019 finds that while most hospitalizations did not involve any substances, methamphetamine-related hospitalizations ...

Many Youths Continue to Take Opioids Months After Surgical Procedures

July 11, 2024 — A multi-institutional study found that 1 in 6 youths fill an opioid prescription prior to surgery, and 3% of patients were still filling opioid prescriptions three to six months after surgery, ...

New Data Identifies Trends in Accidental Opioid Overdoses in Children

Apr. 17, 2024 — The US saw a 22% decline in rates of prescription-opioid overdose related emergency department (ED) visits in children 17 and younger between 2008 and 2019, but an uptick in the early part of the ...

Molecular Causes of Different Functions of Opioid Receptors

Apr. 12, 2024 — Drugs that target opioid receptors sometimes have severe side effects. Thousands of people around the world die every day from overdoses involving opioids such as fentanyl. Researchers have taken a ...

Early Identification of Persistent Pain Plus Holistic Interventions Cut Opioid Use

Mar. 20, 2024 — In a new study, researchers found that a carefully worded, short questionnaire successfully identified people who were most likely to develop chronic pain. These patients were then steered to a more ...

Researchers Uncover Potential Non-Opioid Treatment for Chronic Pain

Jan. 31, 2024 — A new approach to treating neuropathic pain is making a key step forward. Neuropathic pain is among the most difficult types of pain to alleviate and current treatments are often ineffective. ...

Surgery Patients Now Less Likely to Get Opioids -- But Decline Has Slowed

Dec. 7, 2023 — Post-surgery pain relief has shifted away from opioid-containing medications over the past seven years, but the downward trend has slowed since 2020, a new study shows. Overall, the rate of ...

No Evidence Found That Cannabis Reduces Long Term Opioid Use, Study Shows

Nov. 29, 2023 — A 20-year study examined the long term relationship between cannabis and illicit opioid use. Overall results were inconsistent and showed no strong link. The study showed that clinicians and ...

Opioid Disorder Treatment: First Three Weeks Forecast Success

Nov. 3, 2023 — A newly developed prediction model may be able to calculate the risk of opioid relapse among individuals in the early stages of medication treatment -- as early as three weeks into ...

Alternative Pain Control Circuits in the Brain Produce Relief Similar to Opioids Without the Downsides

Sep. 20, 2023 — New research has identified an alternative signaling pathway in the brain of mice that relieves pain, even in animals that have developed tolerance to opioids. The study also showed that pain relief ...

Understanding and Treating Pain in Children

Sep. 19, 2023 — It is often hard to understand the source of pain in babies and children, and if they experience it often or for a long time, it can do severe ...

Human Antibody That Targets Carfentanil, Fentanyl and Related Opioids Reverses Overdose Effects in Preclinical Study

Aug. 7, 2023 — An antibody therapy appears to have advantages over existing opioid-overdose ...

Researchers Use the Antidepressant Tianeptine to Manage Chronic Pain

July 24, 2023 — Neuropathic pain is a debilitating condition estimated to affect as much as 10% of the global population. It results from a damaged or malfunctioning nervous system, stemming from diseases like ...

Opioids No More Effective Than Placebo for Acute Back and Neck Pain

June 28, 2023 — Opioid pain-relieving medicines are not more effective than a placebo in relieving acute back and neck pain and may even cause harm, according to a recent ...

Marijuana-Derived Compounds Could Reverse Opioid Overdoses, Researchers Report

Mar. 28, 2023 — Naloxone -- a fast-acting opioid antidote -- has saved lives, but it's less effective against powerful synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl. In an interesting twist, researchers are now ...

New Test Quickly Identifies Patients Whose Postoperative Pain Can Be Effectively Treated by Hypnosis

Mar. 14, 2023 — Hypnosis is an effective treatment for pain for many individuals but determining which patients will benefit most can be challenging. Hypnotizability testing requires special training and in-person ...

Scientists Take Another Step Toward Building a Better Pain Killer

Jan. 12, 2023 — New work provides a comprehensive structural framework that should help drug developers rationally design safer drugs to relieve severe ...

Patients May Be at Higher Risk of Overdose When Opioid Therapy for Pain Is Discontinued

Dec. 1, 2022 — Opioid-related overdose is now a leading cause of accidental death in the United States and Canada. A study suggests discontinuing prescribed opioids was associated with increased overdose ...

Discovery Involving Sodium Could Lead to Safer Painkillers Such as Fentanyl

Nov. 30, 2022 — A collaboration of scientists found a novel way to render benign the worst side effects of ...

COVID Lockdown Did Not Lead to a Rush on Opioid Prescriptions, New York Study Finds

Nov. 28, 2022 — While some feared that New Yorkers would re-fill prescriptions to stockpile opioid medications in the early weeks of the COVID-19 lockdown, New York State opioid prescriptions declined in the period ...