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"People living with chronic pain have few innovative analgesic options available to them outside of systemic opioids. Prolonged use of these opioids can result in respiratory depression, tolerance, addiction, and overdose," says senior study author Nathaniel Jeske of the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. "Being able to increase the responsiveness of peripheral opioid receptor systems could lead to a reduction in systemic opioid administration , thereby reducing the incidence of side effects." Most clinical opioids currently available target mu opioid receptors, including those located in the brain, and therefore have a high potential for abuse. By contrast, drugs targeting delta opioid receptors in the peripheral nervous system rather than the brain and spinal cord produce fewer side effects in animals and have a much lower abuse potential. However, delta opioid receptors in peripheral tissues only become activated in the presence of inf...

Two groups of young male and female social drinkers (34 women, 30 men; 18-33 years old) were given alcohol (0.8g/kg) or a placebo. The FHP group (n= 24) had first-degree relatives with problems of alcohol misuse; the FHN group (n=40) did not. Participants completed four variants of the Five-Choice Serial Reaction Time task, which measures waiting impulsivity. Other types of impulsive behavior were also tested, using the Stop Signal Reaction Time, Information Sampling Task, Delay Discounting Questionnaire, Two-Choice Impulsivity Paradigm, and Time Estimation. The FHP drinkers showed higher waiting impulsivity levels than FHN drinkers when tested for attentional load. However, the FHP group showed less impulsive behavior on the Information Sampling Task. All participants showed alcohol-impaired inhibitory control on the Stop Signal Reaction Time test. In summary, assessing exaggerated waiting impulsivity may help identify those offspring of alcoholics who are at risk for developin...