Background Eating Disorders (ED) affect up to 5% of youth and are associated with reward system alterations compulsive behaviors. Naltrexone, an opioid antagonist, is used treat ED behaviors such as binge eating and/or purging. The presumed mechanism action blockade activation; however, not all patients respond, the optimal dose unknown. Developing a tool detect objective drug response in brain...

Opioid dependence is a condition with serious clinical ramifications. Treatment has focused on detoxification, agonist therapy with methadone or buprenorphine, or remission maintenance with the opioid antagonist, naltrexone. Treatment with oral naltrexone has been limited by poor treatment adherence and relapse. Studies with long-acting formulations have shown increased treatment adherence. Ext...

The effectiveness of naltrexone, a FDA-approved medication for alcohol dependence, can be improved if we support and help patients to consistently take their medication. We illustrate how patient noncompliance with treatment negatively affects outcome, and, we describe a new intervention to enhance medication compliance. Outcome was evaluated for 196 alcohol dependent outpatients who were treat...

The opioid antagonist, naltrexone, is reported, in single centre studies, to improve the clinical outcome of individuals with alcohol dependence participating in outpatient psychosocial programmes. This is the first multicentre controlled study to evaluate the efficacy and safety of naltrexone as adjunctive treatment for alcohol dependence or abuse. Patients who met criteria for alcohol depende...

© 2010 Excerpta Medica Inc. All rights reserved. ABSTRACT Background: Morphine sulfate/sequestered naltrexone hydrochloride (HCl) (MS-sNT) extended-release fixed-dose combination capsules, approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in August 2009 for chronic moderate to severe pain, contain extendedrelease morphine pellets with a sequestered core of the opioid antagonist naltrexone. ...

Opioid agonists and benzodiazepine agonists each increase food intake. Both also increase hedonic 'liking' reactions to sweet tastes in rats. Do opioids and benzodiazepines share overlapping mechanisms of hedonic impact? Or are benzodiazepine and opioid effects on hedonic impact mediated by independent mechanisms? The present study examined whether blockade of opioid receptors prevents benzodia...

Opioid agonists such as morphine have been found to exert excitatory and inhibitory receptor-mediated effects at low and high doses, respectively. Ultra-low doses of opioid antagonists (naloxone and naltrexone), which selectively inhibit the excitatory effects, have been reported to augment systemic morphine analgesia and inhibit the development of tolerance/physical dependence. This study inve...

OBJECTIVE To determine the impact of treatment with oral naltrexone on healthcare costs in patients with alcohol-related disorders. METHODS Using data from the MarketScan Commercial Claims and Encounters Database for 2000-2004, we identified a naltrexone group (with an alcohol-related diagnosis and at least one pharmacy claim for oral naltrexone) and two control groups. Alcohol controls had a...

BACKGROUND A 12-week, multicenter, double-blind, randomized, parallel-group clinical trial to compare naltrexone and placebo was carried out to determine the efficacy, safety, and tolerability of naltrexone together with a psychosocial intervention in the treatment of alcoholism. METHODS A total of 202 alcohol-dependent patients were assigned to 12 weeks' treatment with either naltrexone or p...