Opioid use disorder - Articles - Page 2

Various pills and powders in small plastic ziplock bags

Implantable device automatically reverses opioid overdoses

Aug. 14, 2024

In response to the continuing opioid epidemic, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Brigham and Women’s Hospital developed a small implantable device that monitors heart rate, respiration and other vital signs indicative of an overdose, then automatically releases a dose of naloxone.

FDA retains call for randomization in opioid use disorder guidance

July 15, 2024

By Mark McCarty

The U.S. FDA’s final guidance for device-based treatments for opioid use disorder breaks little new ground relative to the 2023 draft, including a call for the use of a randomized, controlled clinical trial that retains blinding of not just enrollees, but also of the clinicians taking part in these studies.

Illustration of how Naloxone works at the cellular level

Substance use & poisoning

Compound enhances naloxone’s effect in reversing opioid overdose

July 12, 2024

Scientists at Stanford University School of Medicine have discovered a new compound that increases the effects of naloxone, a drug that is used to treat overdoses from opioids like fentanyl, a narcotic that has triggered a public health crisis.

Illustration highlighting the brain's reward circuit.

Substance use & poisoning

Suvorexant prevents opioid-induced brain changes

July 10, 2024

Brains from people with heroin use disorder have an increased number of hypocretin (Hcrt, orexin) neurons, which in turn are significantly smaller than in healthy controls. Meanwhile, human narcolepsy is known to present an average 90% loss of Hcrt neurons and no risk for drug abuse or overdose, even under methamphetamine or methylphenidate prescription, because of a greatly reduced reward activation of the ventral tegmental area (VTA).

Neurology/Psychiatric

GM-3009 is novel ƙ-opioid receptor agonist

Dec. 15, 2023

Researchers from Gilgamesh Pharmaceuticals Inc. and affiliated organizations have presented the discovery and preclinical evaluation of GM-3009, a novel noribogaine analogue being developed for the treatment of opioid use disorder (OUD).

Substance Use & Poisoning

Delix awarded NIDA grant to support development of neuroplastogen for substance use disorders

Dec. 14, 2023

Delix Therapeutics Inc. has been awarded a $320,000 grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health, to support the advancement of DLX-007.

Telehealth credited with boosting effectiveness of care for opioid-use disorder

Oct. 30, 2023

By Mark McCarty

Advocates of expanded use of telehealth in the U.S. may believe they have an unfairly high evidentiary bar to meet to bring payers on board, but that evidentiary requirement just received support from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

US FDA’s draft guidance for opioid use disorder devices greets tepid industry interest

July 27, 2023

By Mark McCarty

The U.S. FDA has issued a draft guidance for devices intended to address opioid use disorder (OUD), a problem with a massive public health footprint that has defied the efforts of public health programs. The draft guidance highlights some of the difficulties in executing pivotal studies for these devices, but the FDA’s July 27 press omits any mention of a 2018 innovation challenge for this category of devices, a programmatic effort that seems to have yielded little in the way of tangible results.

Substance Use & Poisoning

Cessation receives IND clearance for first-in-human study of CSX-1004 for prevention of fentanyl overdose

July 27, 2023

Cessation Therapeutics Inc. has obtained IND clearance from the FDA to initiate a first-in-human trial of CSX-1004 for the prevention of fentanyl overdose. The trial in healthy volunteers is expected to begin next month.

Substance Use & Poisoning

ADX-106772 reduces oxycodone taking and seeking in rats

July 25, 2023

Researchers from Addex Therapeutics Ltd. have published preclinical data for the novel positive allosteric modulator of the metabotropic glutamate mGlu2 receptor, ADX-106772, being developed for the treatment of opioid use disorder (OUD).