Saturday, November 24, 2007

Non-Addictive Painkillers

Could this work for recreational drugs as well?

Two University of Adelaide pharmacologists working with one the world’s leading neuroscientists have helped pave the way for the development of new pain-killing drugs that are not addictive.

Professor of Clinical Pharmacology at the University of Adelaide, Paul Rolan, and postdoctoral fellow Dr Mark Hutchinson are part of a combined US and Australian research team which has made a breakthrough in revealing how opioid drugs such as morphine both relieve pain and also cause addiction.
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“Doctors prescribe morphine for pain relief but opioids come with the potential for addiction or abuse,” Dr Hutchinson says. “Our tests shows that by blocking morphine’s effects on glial cells, it stops cravings for the drug.”
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The Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse in the United States, Nora Volkow, says the research “helps pave the way toward developing new, potent, non-addictive medications”.

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