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Full-Text Articles in Pharmacology
Intrinsic Efficacy As A Determinant Of Opioid Effectiveness In Treatment Of Pain-Depressed Behavior, Edna Santos
Intrinsic Efficacy As A Determinant Of Opioid Effectiveness In Treatment Of Pain-Depressed Behavior, Edna Santos
Theses and Dissertations
Pain is a major public health concern that is commonly associated with behavioral depression, and a major goal in pain treatment is alleviation of pain-related behavioral depression. High-efficacy mu opioid receptor (MOR) agonists (e.g. fentanyl, morphine, oxycodone) are effective to treat pain, but their use is limited by side effects that not only endanger the patient but may also obscure analgesic rescue of pain-depressed behavior. The ongoing epidemic of opioid abuse and overdose deaths has stimulated research to discover non-opioid alternative analgesics; however, this search neglects the clinical potential of safer intermediate-efficacy MOR agonists (e.g. buprenorphine). The objective of the …
Effects Of A Heroin Conjugate Vaccine On The Antinociceptive And Abuse-Related Effects Of Heroin In Rats And Monkeys, Kathryn L. Schwienteck
Effects Of A Heroin Conjugate Vaccine On The Antinociceptive And Abuse-Related Effects Of Heroin In Rats And Monkeys, Kathryn L. Schwienteck
Theses and Dissertations
The increase in heroin use is one factor contributing to the current opioid epidemic in the United States. There are three Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved medications for the treatment of opioid use disorder (OUD), and these include agonist (i.e. methadone and buprenorphine) and antagonist (i.e. naltrexone) therapies. Although these medications are effective for some patients, regulatory constraints for agonist therapies limit access and patient compliance for naltrexone is poor. The development of new therapies, such as immunopharmacotherapies, for the treatment of OUD is a priority for the National Institute of Drug Abuse. A heroin immunopharmacotherapy, or vaccine, produces …
Complexities Of Chronic Opioid Exposure, Maciej Gonek
Complexities Of Chronic Opioid Exposure, Maciej Gonek
Theses and Dissertations
Studies on repeated exposure to opioids have been carried out for decades yet the mechanisms for certain phenomena such as tolerance are still not fully understood. Furthermore, different medications, such as frequently prescribed benzodiazepines, or different disease states, such as HIV, have their own effects and interactions with chronic opioid exposure that are not fully understood. The overall objective of this dissertation was to investigate the complexities of chronic opioid exposure and how different disease states and medications may modulate the effects of chronic opioids. Our findings demonstrate that the administration of diazepam, at doses that are not antinociceptive or …