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Articles on Opioid

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A nurse dispenses liquid Methadose, an FDA-approved medication that helps people addicted to opioids. Whitney Hayward/Portland Press Herald via Getty Images

Myths about will power and moral weakness keep people with opioid use disorder from receiving effective medications like methadone, buprenorphine and naltrexone

Prescription medications can help people with opioid use disorder avoid the risks of relapse and overdose. But stigma based on misperceptions about addiction limits their use.
Opioid neurotransmitters are located in many areas of the body, including the brain, spine and gut. ALIOUI Mohammed Elamine/iStock via Getty Images Plus

Your body naturally produces opioids without causing addiction or overdose – studying how this process works could help reduce the side effects of opioid drugs

Unlike opioid drugs like morphine and fentanyl that travel throughout the body, the opioids your body produces are released in small quantities to specific locations.
Every state bears the burden of the opioid crisis. Digital Deliverance/Shutterstock.com

Opioid epidemic may have cost states at least $130 billion in treatment and related expenses – and that’s just the tip of the iceberg

State governments are leading the charge against opioid makers over their role in the epidemic. A team of researchers at Penn State examined just how much the crisis has cost them.
More than 100 million American suffer from chronic pain – in which pain signals continue in the nervous system for weeks, months, or even years. pathdoc/Shutterstock.com

Chronic pain after trauma may depend on what stress gene variation you carry

Did you know that trauma, even when there is no tissue or nerve damage, can cause chronic pain? Exactly how much pain and who is most vulnerable depends on which ‘stress genes’ we carry.

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