Is Morphine a Guy Drug?

piggy submitted, created time 2 weeks 5 hours (sciencenow.sciencemag.org)

Men get more relief than women do from painkillers like morphine, according to some studies. New research with rats hints at a possible explanation: Male rats have more receptors for the drug in a brain region involved in pain processing. Although it's not yet clear whether the same is true in humans, researchers say the study underscores the need for more research on the sex-specific effects of pain drugs

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Long-Term Benefits of Morphine Treatment in Infants Confirmed in Rodent Study

sea-maid submitted, created time 2 months 3 days (www.filterproof.com)

A recent study conducted by researchers at Georgia State University is the first of its kind to demonstrate that administration of preemptive morphine prior to a painful procedure in infancy blocks the long-term negative consequences of pain in adult rodents. These studies have serious implications for the way anesthetics and analgesics are administered to neonates prior to surgery.

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Hormone blocks opiate damage

sea-maid submitted, created time 7 months 2 weeks (www.pnas.org)

Previous studies have shown that chronic opiates may inhibit cell growth and trigger apoptosis leading to impaired cognitive capabilities in both humans and other mammals. And these results suggest that the hormone is capable of preventing or even repairing morphine-induced damage to hippocampal cells

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Glia Stoke Morphine's Fires

Altered sensitivities to morphine and cocaine in scaffold protein tamalin knockout mice

stephen submitted, created time 1 year 4 months (www.pnas.org)

Tamalin is a scaffold protein that interacts with metabotropic glutamate receptors and the kinase-deficient neurotrophin TrkCT1 receptor and forms a protein complex with multiple protein-trafficking and intracellular signaling molecules.

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How Morphine Breaks the Brain's Brakes May Be Key to Breaking Addiction

fiona submitted, created time 1 year 8 months (www.sciam.com)

"A single dose of morphine can block a process in the brain associated with learning and memory for as long as a full day after being ingested, according to a new study. The disruption causes a neuronal imbalance that researchers say could be the first step in the development of addiction. They add that therapies designed to prevent this from happening during drug use could one day help to thwart chemical dependency. "

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Morphine makes lasting -- and surprising -- change in the brain

channel submitted, created time 1 year 8 months (www.physorg.com)

Morphine, as little as a single dose, blocks the brain’s ability to strengthen connections at inhibitory synapses, according to new Brown University research published in Nature. The findings may help explain the origins of addiction in the brain. The research also supports a provocative new theory of addiction as a disease of learning and memory.

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Addictive drugs harm brain's natural brake: study

julie submitted, created time 1 year 8 months (www.reuters.com)

" A single dose of morphine was found to lower the inhibitions of rats, even after the drug had left their systems, a finding that may help scientists better understand addiction in humans, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday."

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