Psychopharmacology
-
Comparative Study Clinical Trial Controlled Clinical Trial
Blockade of hydromorphone effects by buprenorphine/naloxone and buprenorphine.
Buprenorphine is an opioid agonist-antagonist used in the treatment of opioid dependence. Naloxone has been combined with buprenorphine to decrease the parenteral abuse potential of buprenorphine. This addition of naloxone may also confer further opioid blockade efficacy. ⋯ The addition of naloxone to buprenorphine may deter the parenteral abuse of buprenorphine/naloxone, but it does not enhance the therapeutic efficacy of buprenorphine. The blockade efficacy of buprenorphine/naloxone is dose related; however, doses up to 32/8 mg buprenorphine/naloxone provide only partial blockade when subjects receive a high dose of an opioid agonist.
-
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical Trial
Maintaining alertness and performance during sleep deprivation: modafinil versus caffeine.
The performance and alertness effects of modafinil were evaluated to determine whether modafinil should replace caffeine for restoring performance and alertness during total sleep deprivation in otherwise healthy adults. ⋯ Like caffeine, modafinil maintained performance and alertness during the early morning hours, when the combined effects of sleep loss and the circadian trough of performance and alertness trough were manifest. Thus, equivalent performance- and alertness-enhancing effects were obtained with drugs possessing different mechanisms of action. However, modafinil does not appear to offer advantages over caffeine (which is more readily available and less expensive) for improving performance and alertness during sleep loss in otherwise normal, healthy adults.
-
Gonadal steroid hormones altered opioid antinociception under some conditions in rodents, and we reported previously that chronic estradiol enhanced kappa but not mu opioid antinociception in ovariectomized rhesus monkeys. Sex differences have also been observed in the antinociceptive effects of opioid agonists. These findings suggest that gonadal hormones may modulate opioid antinociception. ⋯ These findings further suggest that chronic treatment with physiological levels of gonadal hormones may modulate the antinociceptive effects of U50,488 in ovariectomized rhesus monkeys.