Scientists Take Step Closer To Designing Drug That Offers Powerful Pain Relief Without Addiction
In the midst of the opioid crisis, researchers are scrambling to come up with a way to help patients manage pain without contributing to the epidemic. These scientists may have found a way.
Los Angeles Times:
This Engineered Painkiller Works Like An Opioid But Isn't Addictive In Animal Tests
Sometimes forgotten in the spiraling U.S. crisis of opiate abuse is a clinical fact about narcotic pain medications: addiction is basically an unwanted side effect of drugs that are highly effective at blunting pain. Addiction, of course, is a particularly dangerous and disruptive side effect, since it hijacks a patient's brain and demands escalating doses of opioid drugs to hold withdrawal symptoms at bay. (Healy, 4/24)
California Healthline:
Facebook Live: Confronting Opioid Addiction
Three medications have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat opioid addiction: methadone, buprenorphine and naltrexone. But access to them depends largely on where you live. Methadone and buprenorphine are the two most popular options. But many California communities, particularly rural ones, have neither a methadone clinic nor a doctor who can prescribe buprenorphine. (4/24)
