Weighing Cost, Liability in Delivering Recommended Addiction Treatment.
Weighing cost, liability in delivering recommended addiction treatment.
Filed under: Addiction Rehab
Behav Healthc. 2012 Nov-Dec; 32(6): 10-1
Grantham D
Deep brain stimulation of the nucleus accumbens and its usefulness in severe opioid addiction.
Filed under: Addiction Rehab
Mol Psychiatry. 2013 Jan 22;
Kuhn J, Möller M, Treppmann JF, Bartsch C, Lenartz D, Gruendler TO, Maarouf M, Brosig A, Barnikol UB, Klosterkötter J, Sturm V
Sensitization by ventral pallidal DAMGO: lack of cross-sensitization to morphine.
Filed under: Addiction Rehab
Neuroreport. 2013 Jan 18;
Rokosik SL, Persons AL, Napier TC
Repeated injections of morphine into the ventral pallidum of laboratory rats results in the development and expression of motor sensitization. Although morphine and [D-Ala, N-MePhe, Gly(ol)]-enkephalin (DAMGO) both activate ?-opioid receptors, their influence on receptor-mediated signaling differs; therefore, we determined if they differentially influenced ventral pallidal-mediated motor sensitization. Repeated intraventral pallidal injections of DAMGO led to the development of motor sensitization and this behavior persisted for at least 18 days. When DAMGO-sensitized rats were challenged with a morphine treatment (either in the ventral pallidum or systemically), the resulting motor response was similar to that seen in rats with a history of intrapallidal saline, that is, cross-sensitization did not occur. As DAMGO and morphine likely activate different arms of the heterologous signal transduction system associated with ?-opioid receptors, these observations may reflect behavioral consequences of biased agonism at these receptors.
HubMed – addiction
Quantitative analysis of astrogliosis in drug dependent humans.
Filed under: Addiction Rehab
Brain Res. 2013 Jan 18;
Weber M, Scherf N, Kahl T, Braumann UD, Scheibe P, Kuska JP, Bayer R, Büttner A, Franke H
Drug addiction is a chronic, relapsing disease caused by neurochemical and molecular changes in the brain. In this human autopsy study qualitative and quantitative changes of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP)-positive astrocytes in the hippocampus of 26 lethally intoxicated drug addicts and 35 matched controls are described. The morphological characterization of these cells reflected alterations representative for astrogliosis. But, neither quantification of GFAP-positive cells nor the Western blot analysis indicated statistical significant differences between drug fatalities versus controls. However, by semi-quantitative scoring a significant shift towards higher numbers of activated astrocytes in the drug group was detected. To assess morphological changes quantitatively, graph-based representations of astrocyte morphology were obtained from single cell images captured by confocal laser scanning microscopy. Their underlying structures were used to quantify changes in astroglial fibers in an automated fashion. This morphometric analysis yielded significant differences between the investigated groups for four different measures of fiber characteristics (Euclidean distance, graph distance, number of graph elements, fiber skeleton distance), indicating that e.g. astrocytes in drug addicts on average exhibit significant elongation of fiber structures as well as two fold increase in GFAP-positive fibers as compared with those in controls. In conclusion, the present data show characteristic differences in morphology of hippocampal astrocytes in drug addicts versus controls and further supports the involvement of astrocytes in human pathophysiology of drug addiction. The automated quantification of astrocyte morphologies provides a novel, testable way to assess the fiber structures in a quantitative manner as opposed to standard, qualitative descriptions.
HubMed – addiction
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