Opium News

April 26, 2024

Top Headlines

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 ...

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. Researchers have identified a potential non-opioid ...

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 surgery-related opioid prescriptions dropped by 36% from ...

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 ...

Latest Headlines

updated 10:48pm EDT

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

New Study on Morphine Treatment in People With COPD and Severe, Long Term Breathlessness

Nov. 23, 2022 — Sometimes healthcare professionals treat patients with opioids such as morphine to relieve symptoms, but there has been a lack of evidence as to whether this helps with severe chronic breathlessness. ...

Fentanyl Vaccine Potential 'Game Changer' for Opioid Epidemic

Nov. 14, 2022 — A breakthrough discovery could have major implications for the nation's opioid epidemic by becoming a relapse prevention vaccine for people trying to quit using ...

Outpatient Visits Are Critical to Success of Treating Opioid-Use Disorder, Researchers Find

Oct. 26, 2022 — People with opioid-use disorder who enter treatment are at risk for relapse, overdose or death if they engage in less than two outpatient visits in their first month of care, according to a new ...

Antibody Blunts Heroin's Lethality, Paving the Way for a Promising New Therapy

Oct. 26, 2022 — New findings unexpectedly show that heroin, not its metabolites, is the best therapeutic ...

Pain Relief Without Side Effects and Addiction

Oct. 19, 2022 — New substances that activate adrenalin receptors instead of opioid receptors have a similar pain relieving effect to opiates, but without the negative aspects such as respiratory depression and ...

Opioid Addiction Treatment Disparities Could Worsen If Phone Telehealth Option Ends, Study Suggests

Oct. 12, 2022 — Veterans receiving buprenorphine were more likely to stay on it if they had virtual visits, but phone-based virtual care was especially prominent among those who are Black or lack stable housing, ...

Home Sensors Can Detect Opioid Withdrawal Signs at Night

Oct. 10, 2022 — Some smart home technology could help curb opioid overdose. A pilot study showed that a set of noninvasive home sensors could provide accurate information about overnight restlessness and sleep ...

Daylight Hours Impact Opioid Receptor Levels in Brown Fat

Oct. 7, 2022 — Researchers have observed that the length of daylight hours impacts opioid receptor levels in brown fat. When daylight hours shorten, the receptor activity levels elevate. A similar phenomenon also ...

Human Cocaine and Heroin Addiction Is Found Tied to Impairments in Specific Brain Circuit Initially Implicated in Animals

Oct. 6, 2022 — Results of a new study suggest the prefrontal cortex-habenula circuit is potentially amenable for targeted interventions and ...

Lack of Naloxone Led to Increased Overdose Deaths in Rural Pennsylvania, Study Finds

Oct. 3, 2022 — Using data from the Pennsylvania Overdose Information Network from the years 2018-20 and American Community Survey data from 2015-19, geography researchers looked at the prevalence of overdoses in ...

MRI Findings in Opioid-Exposed Fetuses Show Smaller Brain Size

Sep. 29, 2022 — According to a new study, third-trimester fetuses with in utero opioid exposure exhibited multiple smaller 2D biometric measurements of the brain, as well as altered fetal physiology, on ...

Could Greater Prescription of Medical Cannabis Be a Solution to the Opioid Crisis?

Sep. 28, 2022 — In new study, opioid use seen to reduce or stop altogether, following prescription of medical ...

Cooling Away the Pain: Researchers Develop Bioresorbable, Implantable Device to Block Pain Signals from Peripheral Nerves

Sep. 6, 2022 — Researchers test the efficacy of a soft, bioresorbable, implantable device to block pain signals from sciatic nerves of rat ...

Increased Use of Telehealth for Opioid Use Disorder Services During COVID-19 Pandemic Associated With Reduced Risk of Overdose

Aug. 31, 2022 — The expansion of telehealth services during the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with individuals staying in treatment longer and reducing their risk of medically treated overdose, according to a new ...

Study Reveals Fentanyl's Effects on the Brain

Aug. 30, 2022 — Fentanyl produces a specific EEG signature distinct from other anesthetic drugs, which could make it possible to monitor its effects to enable safer, more precise, and personalized opioid ...