INTRODUCTION The Short Opiate Withdrawal Scale (SOWS)-Gossop is a 10-item questionnaire developed to evaluate opioid withdrawal symptom severity. The scale was derived from the original 32-item Opiate Withdrawal Scale in order to reduce redundancy while providing an equally sensitive measure of opioid withdrawal symptom severity appropriate for research and clinical practice. The objective of t...

cardiovascular effects of opioid withdrawal have long been studied. it was reported that patients with underlying ischemic heart disease and atherosclerotic vessels may be complicated by a sudden physical and emotional stress due to withdrawal syndrome. but some other believes sudden increase in catecholamine level as a sympathetic overflow might effect on heart with and without underlying isch...

Background:Naltrexone is a competitive opioid receptor antagonist blocking the euphoric effects of exogenous opioids. When used concomitantly with opioids, naltrexone causes severe withdrawal symptoms.The main aim of the study is to determine the symptomatology and outcome of patients who consumed naltrexone in conjunction with an opioid substance. Methods:This cross-sectional study was perf...

Opioids contribute to 70% of the negative health impact associated with drug use disorders. A new opioid withdrawal protocol using over-the-counter medications loperamide and P-glycoprotein inhibitor (omeprazole) was described by Dr Al Garhy previously. In this article successful protocol, evidenced Clinical Opiate Withdrawal Scale, is discussed in a case series.

Opioid receptor antagonists increase hyperalgesia in humans and animals, which indicates that endogenous activation of opioid receptors provides relief from acute pain; however, the mechanisms of long-term opioid inhibition of pathological pain have remained elusive. We found that tissue injury produced μ-opioid receptor (MOR) constitutive activity (MOR(CA)) that repressed spinal nociceptive si...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Tolerance to the behavioural effects of morphine is blunted in β-arrestin-2 knockout mice, but opioid withdrawal is largely unaffected. The cellular mechanisms of tolerance have been studied in some neurons from β-arrestin-2 knockouts, but tolerance and withdrawal mechanisms have not been examined at the cellular level in periaqueductal grey (PAG) neurons, which are cruci...

BACKGROUND Opioid misuse and abuse occurring in association with the treatment of chronic non-cancer pain are not new phenomena, but their increasing prevalence in recent years is unprecedented. Advancements in pharmaceutical technologies have provided opioid-related drugs, which lack the pure mu agonist activity characteristic of the typical opioid congeners. This absent or altered mu receptor...