Potential Pain Medication Targets Peripheral Nerves
Oxycodone, hydrocodone, morphine, and other opioids are the most effective analgesic medications currently available, but they can be addictive and lethal when misused. The United States is currently experiencing an epidemic of such misuse; treatment admissions for abuse of prescription opioids quadrupled from 1998 to 2008, and opioid overdose was second only to road accidents as a cause of unintentional deaths in 2009. As part of NIDA’s comprehensive efforts to curb this epidemic, investigators are searching for safer analgesic alternatives. A NIDA-supported group at the University of