The chronic use of nicotine, the main psychoactive ingredient of tobacco smoking, alters diverse physiological processes and consequently generates physical dependence. To understand the impact of chronic nicotine on neuropeptides, which are potential molecules associated with dependence, we conducted qualitative and quantitative neuropeptidomics on the rat dorsal striatum, an important brain r...

The tolerance and dependence after chronic medication with morphine are thought to be representative models for studying the plasticity, including the remodeling of neuronal networks. To test the hypothesis that changes in neuronal plasticity observed in opioid tolerance or dependence are derived from increased activity of the anti-opioid nociceptin system, the effects of chronic treatments wit...

Antidepressants are commonly used in substance abusers due to the potential effect on some underlying mechanisms involved in drug use disorders and to treat comorbid depression. A systematic review of the literature of the efficacy of antidepressant drugs in subjects with drug abuse disorders, including alcohol, cocaine, nicotine and opioid, with and without comorbid depression was performed. O...

the mechanisms of drug dependence and rewarding properties of opiates are not exactly known and several neurotransmitters seem to be involved. it is possible that the rennin-angiotensin system could interact with the opioid system, since it has been shown that angiotensin ii(ang) and ace inhibitors have analgesic, anticonvulsant and antidepression effects and in some cases they could antagonize...

Rats were trained to discriminate 4-h pretreatment with 10 mg/kg morphine and 15-min pretreatment with 0.3 mg/kg naltrexone (morphine-->naltrexone) from pretreatment with saline and 0.3 mg/kg naltrexone (saline-->naltrexone). The discrimination seems to derive from interoceptive stimuli from antagonist-precipitated withdrawal from acute morphine dependence. The purpose of this study was to exte...

Although current treatments for opioid detoxification are not always effective, medical detoxification remains a required step before long-term interventions. The use of opioid antagonist medications to improve detoxification has produced inconsistent results. Very low dose naltrexone (VLNTX) was recently found to reduce opioid tolerance and dependence in animal and clinical studies. We decided...

Although opioids are highly effective for the treatment of pain, they are also known to be intensely addictive. There has been a massive research investment in the development of opioid analgesics, resulting in a plethora of compounds with varying affinity and efficacy at all the known opioid receptor subtypes. Although compounds of extremely high potency have been produced, the problem of tole...