Morphine's little helper.
Glia (green) contribute to the opioid's downsides.
Credit: Steven Pollard/Wellcome Images
Posted on 11/09/2007 9:06:10 PM PST by neverdem
Morphine's little helper.
Glia (green) contribute to the opioid's downsides.
Credit: Steven Pollard/Wellcome Images
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA--Opioid drugs such as morphine are the most powerful painkillers. Unfortunately, in some patients their narcotic effects lead to addiction and the need for ever-escalating doses to quell pain. New research with rats shows that blocking morphine's action on glia--a type of support cell in the nervous system--can reduce these downsides while heightening its potency against pain.
Over the past decade, scientists have discovered that glial cells heighten nerve pain, such as sciatica, by exciting the neurons that transmit pain signals. Morphine deadens pain by acting at nerve synapses, but it also activates glial cells, possibly worsening the drug's side effects, such as drowsiness, tolerance, worsening of pain, and addiction.
To tease apart morphine's effects on glia and neurons, neuroscientists Linda Watkins and Mark Hutchinson of the University of Colorado, Boulder, took advantage of a drug called AV411 that blocks morphine's effects on glia but not on neurons. It boosted the painkiller: Rats injected with AV411 and morphine showed less response to a painful test than did rats given morphine alone. Watkins and Hutchinson also found that over time, morphine better retained its pain-relieving potency in the rats that also received AV411.
Doctors prescribe morphine for pain relief, but opioids come with the potential for addiction or abuse. To check for a link between glia and morphine addiction, the pair tested whether blocking morphine's effects on glial cells would keep rats from craving the drug. In this test, the pain-free animals learned that they would receive a drug in one area and not in another. Animals that enjoy receiving a drug tend to return to the drug area over and over. Rats in the AV411-plus-morphine group wandered around rather than returning to the drug area, the researchers reported here 5 November at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience.
By showing that glial cells "play a previously unsuspected role in pathological pain," says Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the research helps pave the way toward developing new, potent, nonaddictive medications.
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No! Don’t mess with pain pills, that’s sick. They work just fine in my view.
Glia=glue=80% of the cells in the CNS.
You do know that we wouldn’t even have pain pills if somebody hadn’t “messed with” opium poppies in the first place, right?
I learned 1st-hand that people differ widely in their brain’s reaction to morphine, because after 2 different surgeries for cancer I was given morphine for pain and I hated it and did not find it very helpful (not that I would have wanted to be without any painkiller at the time!!). Whereas some patients crave more morphine from the first experience of it, I hated the way it made my brain feel and could not wait to be done with; I have never for an instant wanted more morphine since I experienced it 5+ years ago, whereas many people crave it. Also, after a really major abdominal surgery it turned out that no amount of morphine (within what were considered safe limits) could actually mask my pain completely, i.e., the docs were giving me so much morphine that my breathing slowed dangerously and yet the pain was still nearly unbearable. So whereas some brains reach a blissful state, I found the mental experience of morphine (as distinct from the abdominal pain itself) to be miserable and unable to fully mask or overcome the pain. There seems to be no question that my brain/body have a very different kind of sensitivity to and metabolization (if that is the right word) of morphine than other brain/bodies.
FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list.
Very interesting study. Apparently pain reduction alone is not alluring to an animal. Opiates without the addictive qualities would be an amazing boon to medicine.
I busted my collarbone a few years back (nothing complicated) and learned what real pain was. I think there’s a rule somewhere that the stuff can’t get you high if you actually are in need of it (pain) when you take it.
I threw my oxycodone away the day I no longer needed it. I could never get hooked on opiates. There’s that little problem about not being able to make poopies.
Yes it would be a good thing...
Morphine isn’t the greatest stuff in my experience as well.
It does take the edge off pain but as you say, doesn’t really eliminate it. After 2-3 days, it begins to make me ‘itchy’ and my skin pain sensitive. It also wore off fast, 10 mg would wear off in about an hour or so, leaving you to deal with increasing pain for another 3 hours before nurses would give another shot. Getting off the stuff afterwards isn’t pleasant either. The longer you are on it, the worse it is.
I found Fentynol to be much better for pain, but it also knocks you out, makes you feel real groggy, and it’s so strong you can “taste” it, and smell the chemicals oozing from your pores. But getting off the stuff isn’t easy either. I was on a high dose of Fentynol patches for about a year, then went off them cold turkey. It’s like being burned alive as all the drug leaves your system and your nerves try adjust to normal feelings.
Ocycontin is the best for me, I was able to get out of my wheel chair for the first time in 2 years, and haven’t been back in it except for the odd time. No more drowsiness and being stoned out of your mind. Other than relief of pain, Oxy doesn’t have any other effect on me at all. I haven’t had the usual drug immunity develop like you get with Morphine, Fentynol, Tylenol etc. Once the right dose was found, I’ve never had to have it adjusted.
Of course, if a person is not suffering from chronic pain, they should NOT take this drug. I don’t know about the addictive quality of this drug, as I have never tried to quit taking it, aside from missing a pill once in a while. that results in a gradual return of pain as the drug wears off. No doubt it will have some, like all opiate based drugs.
Oh no you wouldn't. I guarantee you. You obviously haven't been on the stuff long term. No pain med buzz is "bliss" after a while.
The best pain med is one which doesn't give you a buzz at all, like Oxycontin. If it does, then you shouldn't be taking it because you aren't in pain.
All the "bliss" it will give you is a blissful addiction and destroyed life from the roller coaster ride it takes you on.
"That's not how the song goes, man. You're singing it wrong."
After I smoked it I felt wonderful. It was the greatest cigarette ever in the history of the world. My bad back quit hurting and the world was ultra mello.
Then he told me it was heroin. I never did it again, but I’ve always understood why people get addicted.
Suboxone.com
But you can make golf balls...
You are right. The stuff slows down your digestive system. You have to adjust your diet accordingly if you are on the stuff long term. lots of fiber, fruits, greens and keep your fluid intake up.
It works great for pain though.
Jaysun would be disappointed that the "buzz' isn't there if you take it for pain.
If he wants to take oxy for a buzz, then all he'll end up is dead or very messed up along with a ruined life.
I think we must be related!
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