• Sam H Ahmedzai and Jason Boland.
• Academic Unit of Supportive Care, Section of Oncology, School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University of Sheffield, Royal Hallamshire Hospital, Sheffield, UK. s.ahmedzai@sheffield.ac.uk
• Curr Opin Support Palliat Care. 2007 Aug 1; 1 (2): 117-25.

Purpose Of ReviewOpioid analgesics are being increasingly used for pain control in both cancer and noncancer patients. Despite thousands of years of their use, the biological basis of their action and adverse effects are only now being understood. It is important to understand these agents better so that the potentially large sections of the population who may eventually be eligible to receive therapeutic opioids are treated rationally and safely.Recent FindingsRecent advances in pain physiology, molecular biology of neurotransmission, in-vivo neuroimaging and the study of genomic influences on drug receptors and metabolism are beginning to clarify how opioids work, how they differ from each other and how they may cause harm.SummaryUnderstanding the biological basis of how opioids work and produce adverse effects should help us to make better choices of which drugs to use for specific populations. Identifying individual genetic differences in opioid receptors and drug metabolism pathways may also pave the way to more targeted and safer medication in the future.

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