Opioids are a type of medication used to treat severe acute pain. This class of medications relieves pain by producing effects similar to that of morphine by binding to opioid receptors. While these medications are potent painkillers, they often pose as a detriment to patients using them. Many individuals taking opioids often develop a reliance, tolerance, and craving for these substances; many times resulting in addiction. In the United States, prescription medications cannot be obtained without a legal prescription written by a healthcare provider. In the case an individual needs opioid medications, the prescriber will usually write a prescription indicating that the pharmacy provides only a few days or a few weeks supply. Due to the severe addictiveness of these medications, patients often desire more, subsequently putting them in the cycle of addiction. As a result of this occurring over the last few decades, the United States has been declared to be in an opioid epidemic. Since 1999, around 500,000 have died from opioid overdose whereas synthetic and natural opioid overdose deaths have increased 15% and 6% respectively within the last few years (CDC). Despite these drastic numbers, some individuals have been able to capitalize on this devastating problem by creating a lucrative scheme where they can make more money.
In recent news, Purdue Pharma (soon to be known as Knoa Pharma) and their owners, the Sackler family, may be subject to paying $6 billion for being a part of the opioid crisis. Purdue Pharma is a large pharmaceutical company based out of Connecticut that produces medication and despite the overwhelming evidence for the addictiveness of one medication in particular, OxyContin, the Sackler’s still continued to manufacture the medication. While the Sacklers do not admit to any wrongdoing, they claim that “they sincerely regret that OxyContin, a prescription medicine that continues to help people suffering from chronic pain, unexpectedly became part of an opioid crisis that has brought grief and loss to far too many families and communities”. Moreover, the Sacklers are required to provide an apology as well as listen to testimonies from individuals suffering with addiction from OxyContin. Despite this incident, justice for opioid addicts has not been delivered and the search for an addiction treatment remains far from over.
While finding the key to effective treatments for opioid addicts has not been discovered, many researchers have been using model organisms to gain more insight and further understand opioid addiction. Many research labs have utilized rats as model organisms to study the pathways mediating addiction. At Loyola University Chicago, Dr.Stephen Stiedl uses the rat model to study brain systems implicated in motivation and reward, which is facilitated by dopamine. In his 2017 paper, “Opioid-induced rewards, locomotion, and dopamine activation: A proposed model for control by mesopontine and rostromedial tegmental neurons”, Dr.Steidl reviews other scientific literature and compiles a comprehensive piece in which he outlines a potential circuit in which opioids act in the brain. Compared to previous models circuit, the new model is novel in that it considers the laterodorsal tegmental nucleus (LDTg) and the pedunculopontine tegmental nucleus (PPTg) brain regions. Moreover, in this circuit, opioids inhibit GABA neurons in the VTA and RMTg. This results in inhibition of the LDTg and PPTg cholinergic neurons and subsequently allows VTA DA neurons to be activated by LDTg and PPTg neurons. The creation of new models is influential on the path to resolving the opioid epidemic as it increases the number of different targets to further investigate. By searching places of the brain that are still yet to be chartered, we have greater prospects on the path to developing effective treatments for addiction. Thus, Steidl’s review article is suitable for any researchers interested in formulating addiction therapies in rats and hopefully later down the line, humans.
Ultimately, Purdue Pharma needs to reevaluate its management and take into better consideration the effects that their products have at the individual level. While profits might be greater with OxyContin on the market, it is leading many down a dark path with no available cure. Certainly, in this instance, prevention is better than cure. With more publications becoming available and more researchers studying addiction, it is quite possible that a treatment may be available in the coming years. We can only hope that science can put an end to the opioid epidemic.
Hoffman, Jan. “Sacklers and Purdue Pharma Reach New Deal with States over Opioids.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 3 Mar. 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/03/health/sacklers-purdue-oxycontin-settlement.html.
“Understanding the Epidemic.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 17 Mar. 2021, https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/epidemic/index.html.
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