BACKGROUND Unaided attempts to quit smoking commonly fail during the first 2 weeks of the nicotine withdrawal syndrome. Alterations in dopamine (DA) signaling correlate with withdrawal from chronic nicotine exposure, but those changes have not been well-characterized. METHODS Mice were administered nicotine in their drinking water for 4 or 12 weeks. Then nicotine was withheld for 1 to 10 days...

The authors examined the factor structure of the Minnesota Nicotine Withdrawal Scale (MNWS) using confirmatory factor analysis in 3 clinical research samples of smokers trying to quit (N = 723). Three confirmatory factor analytic models, based on previous research, were tested with each of the 3 study samples at multiple points in time. A unidimensional model including all 8 MNWS items was foun...

The objective of this paper is to review and describe the main neuropharmacological changes caused by the chronic use of alcohol and those observed during its withdrawal period. The results show international data referring to the involvement of monoamine systems, neurotransmitters and calcium channels in both neuroadaptation and tolerance to alcohol effects and withdrawal. Relevant studies sho...

Opioids are often prescribed to children for pain relief related to procedures, acute injuries, and chronic conditions. Round-the-clock dosing of opioids can produce opioid dependence within 5 days. According to a 2001 Consensus Paper from the American Academy of Pain Medicine, American Pain Society, and American Society of Addiction Medicine, dependence is defined as "a state of adaptation tha...

The authors tested the decreased reward function hypothesis of nicotine withdrawal using a novel-object place conditioning task. A conditioned place preference was evident in controls and in rats that had experienced 4 nicotine withdrawal days, but not in rats that had experienced 1-3 withdrawal days. This implies that the rewarding properties of interacting with novel objects were not readily ...

effect of otostegia persica on naloxone-induced morphine withdrawal syndrome was studied in male mice. dependence was induced using daily subcutaneous injections of morphine for three days. morphine was injected to mice at doses of 30 and 45mg/kg on day 1 and 60 and 90mg/kg on day 2 (8:00 am and 6:00 pm). on day 3, morphine (90mg/kg) was injected 1h before oral administration and 1.5h before in...

background: acute opioid overdose is a common cause of admission in emergency department. in spite of the fact that naloxone is the main therapy for decades, there are controversies about the proper way of its use. this study aimed to compare two most recommended administration modes for naloxone. methods: in this single-blind clinical trial, 80 patients with methadone overdose syndrome were ra...

background it has been elucidated that berberis vulgaris (barberry) can alleviate morphine withdrawal syndrome. also it has been reported that aqueous extract of barberry possibly have inhibitory effect on nmda receptors. objectives in this study, we decided to evaluate the effects of aqueous extract of b. vulgaris fruit on morphine tendency in mice using conditioned place preference (cpp) meth...

the effect of aqueous extract of nepata glomerulosa boiss. aerial parts on morphine withdrawal syndrome was investigated in mice. dependence was induced by subcutaneous injections of morphine for 3 consecutive days. on day 4, morphine was injected 2 h prior to intraperitoneal injection of naloxone. the number of jumps during a 20 min. period after naloxone injection was considered as a measure ...

This review examines the development of the unitary hypothesis that both drug tolerance and the drug withdrawal syndrome arise from adaptive regulation of drug receptors in the brain. Although there is still considerable merit in this hypothesis, the author explains that careful evaluation of some of the changes that have been reported suggests that many of these are not good explanations for b...