Starting back in the 1990's, America was introduced to a medication that was intended to help with chronic pain. At the time, they were unaware of the risks that followed these new "magic pills". Not only was the drug a new and effective way to eliminate pain but it also had additional euphoric effects. This pain relief drug, that has more recently been abused, can be referred to as an opioid. The use of this drug tends to lead to addiction and opens people up to trying even harder drugs. Stephan Steidl as well as Sabrina Stierwalt have published articles on the reward system that is present when using opioids.
Stephan Steidl's talk on the article "Opioid-induced rewards, locomotion, and dopamine activation: A proposed model for control by mesopontine and rostromedial segmental neurons" touched on the different reward systems present when an animal uses--as well as abuses--opioids. These findings were discovered through experimentation that involved various trials using rodents. In the experiment, the rodents were trained to self-administer the opioids, and through this process the experimenters found that inhibition of GABA neurons, in both the ventral tegmental area and the rostromedial segmental nucleus, lead to arousing and rewarding effects through disinhibition of VTA DA neurons. Steidl also introduces a circuit model that links this with lateral dorsal tegmental and pedunculopontine tegmental neurons. This circuit is critical in showing opioid effects in the tested rodents.
In relation to Steidl's work, is an article by Sabrina Stierwalt called "How can science Combat the Opioid Crisis?". Steidl's article sparked the question of how we could use this information to better benefit humans that suffer from opioid addiction. Stierwalt states in her article that opioids alter the signals your brain sends to the rest of your body. This is where the euphoria comes into play. Through studies, it shows that opioid use over extended time builds up a tolerance, and a person requires more and more of that drug to feel the euphoric effects. This described tolerance leads to addiction and a need for something even stronger. On the other hand, if a user were to stop using all together they could experience pain that is far worse than what they originally felt before opioid use.
Between these two articles, plenty of information was distributed to the reader on opioids and their reward system. At the end of Stierwalt's article, she talked about possibly finding a way to vaccinate people against addiction. If this were to work, the vaccine would prevent the rush of endorphins that usually happens following the use of the drug. This prevention would make it so people would not be experiencing the euphoric effects that lead to addiction. In Stierwalt’s article, it also mentions that a heroine vaccine exists that has already produced promising results in both rodents and primates. This vaccine has not made its way to human trials, so until then normal treatments is still highly recommended when dealing with opioid addiction.
Works Cited:
How Can Science Combat the Opioid Crisis? (2018, January 23). Retrieved from https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/science/how-can-science-combat-the-opioid-crisis
Steidl, S., Wasserman, D. I., Blaha, C. D., & Yeomans, J. S. (2017). Opioid-induced rewards, locomotion, and dopamine activation: A proposed model for control by mesopontine and rostromedial tegmental neurons. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews,83, 72-82. doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2017.09.022
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