Hair testing for the determination of drug exposure has many useful applications. Drug incorporated into hair can be found for extended periods following drug exposure. There are few controlled drug administration studies investigating drug distribution into human hair. Ten volunteers participated in a 10-week controlled cocaine and codeine administration study while residing in the secure rese...

Corticosteroids are often used in the treatment of acute or chronic urticaria. However, their effects on mastocyte activation as well as on the histamine-induced dermal oedema remain poorly investigated. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of corticosteroids (CS) on the development of acute experimental urticaria induced by prick-tests with histamine and codeine. This ex...

The purpose of this experiment was to examine the effects of the endogenous opioid system on forearm muscle pain and muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA) during dynamic fatiguing exercise. Twelve college-age men (24 +/- 4 yr) performed graded (1-min stages; 30 contractions/min) handgrip to fatigue 1 h after the ingestion of either 60 mg codeine, 50 mg naltrexone, or placebo. Pain (0-10 scal...

The CYP2D6 enzyme metabolizes a quarter of all prescribed drugs, including codeine. Some individuals have multiple functional copies of the CYP2D6 gene, making them “ultrarapid metabolizers”. They are able to metabolize codeine to morphine more rapidly and more completely. As a result, even with normal doses of codeine, these individuals may experience the symptoms of morphine overdose, which i...

Objective: this randomized, double blinded, placebo-controlled and active comparators study aimed at evaluating the analgesic activity and tolerability of valdecoxib, a new cyclo-oxygenase (COX)-2 specific inhibitor, as compared with either etoricoxib or codeine/paracetamol combination. Methods: A total of 81 patients with moderate to severe pain following arthroscopic menisectomy of the knee w...

D the past 10 years, efforts in pharmaco genomics have generated insights into the efficacy and safety of drugs, enhancing our understanding of the safety profile of even some of the oldest drugs, such as codeine sulfate, an opioid analgesic first approved in 1950 for relief of mild or moderate pain. Simultaneously, an increased awareness of the value of both personalized medicine and the repor...

QUESTION Owing to Health Canada's recent recommendations to avoid the use of over-the-counter cough and cold medications in preschool children, I was looking at other antitussive medications for acute cough. Codeine was recommended in the past for this indication. What is the evidence for its use and how effective and safe is it? ANSWER Cough is one of the most common symptoms in children, an...

Rhesus monkeys were conditioned to lever press for intravenous injections of codeine. The self-injection behavior was brought under the control of a schedule of drug delivery and access to the codeine schedule was made available twice each day. Subsequently, a variety of doses of codeine and saline were compared to the dose used to condition and maintain self-injection responding. Each change i...