Posted by Caleb462 on July 2, 2003, at 2:20:28
In reply to Re: opiates, posted by jonh kimble on July 2, 2003, at 0:13:26
> im sorry i cant answer your question, i have never taken any opioids, but i would be interested in talking about the potential of opiods in psychiatric use. are there any opiods that can be used long term or any on the horizon that any body knows about? thanks
There are some doctors, though probably quite rare, who are willing to prescribe opiods for psych. problems. Buprenorphine, I think, is the one most talked about in conjunction with treating depression.
I certainly believe the endogenous opiod system should be heavily studied in regards to psychiatric disorders and treatment. Mu-agonists will likely never be an accepted treatment for depression (mu-agonists are chemicals such as morphine, hydrocodone, oxycodone, fentanyl, etc - all the pain killers). However, things like delta-receptor agonists, kappa-receptor antagonists, and enkephalinase inhibitors (enkephalinase is a substance that degrades the endogenous opiods, basically the MAO of the opiod system) could be great things for depression. Unfortunately, it may be some time, if ever, before any of these type of drugs hit the market.
poster:Caleb462
thread:238575
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030701/msgs/238671.html