Translational research : the journal of laboratory and clinical medicine
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It is essential that safe and effective treatment options be available to patients suffering from chronic pain. The emergence of an opioid epidemic has shaped public opinions and created stigmas surrounding the use of opioids for the management of pain. ⋯ We will also discuss the safety and efficacy of opioid and nonopioid treatment options for chronic pain. Finally, we will review the evidence for adenylyl cyclase type 1 (AC1) as a novel target for the treatment of chronic pain.
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Review
At the Intersection of Sleep Deficiency and Opioid Use: Mechanisms and Therapeutic Opportunities.
Due to the ongoing opioid epidemic, innovative scientific perspectives and approaches are urgently needed to reduce the unprecedented personal and societal burdens of nonmedical and recreational opioid use. One promising opportunity is to focus on the relationship between sleep deficiency and opioid use. In this review, we examine empirical evidence: (1) at the interface of sleep deficiency and opioid use, including hypothesized bidirectional associations between sleep efficiency and opioid abstinence; (2) as to whether normalization of sleep deficiency might directly or indirectly improve opioid abstinence (and vice versa); and (3) regarding mechanisms that could link improvements in sleep to opioid abstinence. Based on available data, we identify candidate sleep-restorative therapeutic approaches that should be examined in rigorous clinical trials.
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The opioid crisis in the United States has been defined by waves of drug- and locality-specific Opioid use-Related Epidemics (OREs) of overdose and bloodborne infections, among a range of health harms. The ability to identify localities at risk of such OREs, and better yet, to predict which ones will experience them, holds the potential to mitigate further morbidity and mortality. This narrative review was conducted to identify and describe quantitative approaches aimed at the "risk assessment," "detection" or "prediction" of OREs in the United States. ⋯ In the context of infectious disease OREs, routine genetic sequencing of patient samples to identify growing transmission clusters via phylogenetic methods could increase early detection capacity. A coordinated implementation of multiple, complementary approaches would increase our ability to successfully anticipate outbreak risk and respond preemptively. We present a multi-disciplinary framework for the prediction of OREs in the US and reflect on challenges research teams will face in implementing such strategies along with good practices.
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Opioids are commonly prescribed for the management of patients with chronic noncancer pain. Despite the potential analgesic benefits of opioids, long-term opioid therapy (LTOT) may be accompanied by problems such as opioid misuse and opioid use disorder (OUD). In this review, we begin with a description of opioid misuse and OUD and the patient-specific factors associated with these problems among patients with chronic pain. ⋯ Several psychological factors have been found to be associated with opioid use problems in patients with chronic pain, and evidence indicates that patients presenting with psychological disturbances are particularly at risk of transitioning to long-term opioid use, engaging in opioid misuse behaviors, and developing OUD. The biological factors that might underlie the association between psychological disturbances and opioid use problems in patients with chronic pain have yet to be fully elucidated, but a growing number of studies suggest that dysfunctions in reward, appetitive, autonomic, and neurocognitive systems might be involved. We end with an overview of specific types of psychological interventions that have been put forward to prevent or reduce the occurrence of opioid misuse and OUD in patients with chronic pain who are prescribed LTOT.
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T-type calcium channels regulate neuronal excitability and are important contributors of pain processing. CaV3.2 channels are the major isoform expressed in nonpeptidergic and peptidergic nociceptive neurons and are emerging as promising targets for pain treatment. ⋯ Targeting the proteins that regulate the trafficking or transcription, and the ones that modify the channels via post-translational modifications are alternative means to regulate expression and function of CaV3.2 channels and hence to develop new drugs to control pain. Here we synthesize data supporting a role for CaV3.2 in numerous pain modalities and then discuss emerging opportunities for the indirect targeting of CaV3.2 channels.