Medical research

Discovery suggests route to safer pain medications

Strategies to treat pain without triggering dangerous side effects such as euphoria and addiction have proven elusive. For decades, scientists have attempted to develop drugs that selectively activate one type of opioid receptor ...

Medical research

How opioid drugs get into our cells

The human body naturally produces opioid-like substances, such as endorphins, that block the perception of pain and increase the feeling of well-being. Similarly, opioid drugs, including morphine or fentanyl, are widely used ...

Medical research

Marijuana-derived compounds could reverse opioid overdoses

There's been a recent push in the U.S. to make naloxone—a fast-acting opioid antidote—available without a prescription. This medication has saved lives, but it's less effective against powerful synthetic opioids, such ...

Neuroscience

Why green light helps reduce pain in mice

A team of researchers at Fudan University's, State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology and MOE Frontiers Center for Brain Science, Institutes of Brain Science, in China, has traced neural activity from the eyes to the ...

Medications

Search for safer pain relief advances with new compounds

Scientists at Scripps Research in Florida have created a collection of new pain-relieving compounds, that like morphine and other drugs, provide relief via activation of opioid receptors, but without inducing many dangerous ...

Medical research

Body's natural pain killers can be enhanced

Fentanyl, oxycodone, morphine—these substances are familiar to many as a source of both pain relief and the cause of a painful epidemic of addiction and death.

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