http://www.physorg.com/ en-us Physorg.com internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Scientists are adding additional brush strokes to the revolutionary new image now emerging for star-shaped cells called astrocytes in the brain and spinal cord. Their report, which suggests a key role for astrocytes in morphine's ability to relieve pain and cause addiction, appears online in ACS' Journal of Proteome Research. http://www.physorg.com/news179585968.html Chemistry Wed, 09 Dec 2009 13:10:16 EST news179585968 University of Michigan scientists have developed a combination drug that promises a safer, more precise way for medics and fellow soldiers in battle situations to give a fallen soldier both morphine and a drug that limits morphine's dangerous side effects. http://www.physorg.com/news173021981.html Nanotechnology Thu, 24 Sep 2009 14:40:24 EST news173021981 By seeing what substances and molecules affect the development of our diseases, we can develop drugs that prevent or cure diseases. In her dissertation at Kalmar University in Sweden, Ann Novotny has found that the signal molecule acetylcholine (ACh) is important for the progress of cancer of the large intestine and colon, knowledge that is important to factor in when developing drugs that block the effects of Ach on tumor cells. http://www.physorg.com/news172915513.html Medicine & Health Wed, 23 Sep 2009 09:30:02 EST news172915513 As part of efforts to understand drug abuse, Georgia State University researchers are finding that adolescent rats appear to be less vulnerable to the long-term effects of withdrawal and relapse in certain types of drug use than rats that take the drugs in adulthood. http://www.physorg.com/news172337762.html Medicine & Health Wed, 16 Sep 2009 16:50:01 EST news172337762 A report out of The University of Western Ontario, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, warns the use of codeine to treat pain following a tonsillectomy could prove fatal for some children. Dr. Gideon Koren, who holds the Ivey Chair in Molecular Toxicology at Western, zeroed in on the danger after investigating the death of a two year old boy following a relatively easy operation to remove his tonsils. http://www.physorg.com/news169926854.html Medicine & Health Wed, 19 Aug 2009 18:56:05 EST news169926854 (PhysOrg.com) -- Injections of THC, the active principle of cannabis, eliminate dependence on opiates (morphine, heroin) in rats deprived of their mothers at birth. This has been shown by a study carried out by Valérie Daugé and her team at the Laboratory for Physiopathology of Diseases of the Central Nervous System (France) in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology. The findings could lead to therapeutic alternatives to existing substitution treatments. http://www.physorg.com/news166196260.html Medicine & Health Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:38:02 EST news166196260 Morphine patches are supposed to reduce use of painkillers, and provide more control over their use in chronic pain conditions. But researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and St. Olavs Hospital in Trondheim have found otherwise. http://www.physorg.com/news161788928.html Medicine & Health Sun, 17 May 2009 14:24:12 EST news161788928 (PhysOrg.com) -- Fish don't make noises or contort their faces to show that it hurts when hooks are pulled from their mouths, but a Purdue University researcher believes they feel that pain all the same. http://www.physorg.com/news160235874.html Biology Wed, 29 Apr 2009 14:58:24 EST news160235874 Researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have found a way to maintain the pain-killing qualities of morphine over an extended period of time, thus providing a solution for the problem of having to administer increasing dosages of the drug in order to retain its effectiveness. http://www.physorg.com/news160047933.html Medicine & Health Mon, 27 Apr 2009 10:46:10 EST news160047933 (AP) -- A liquid morphine painkiller given by family caregivers to dying patients can remain on the market, federal regulators have decided after hearing protests over their decision to remove it. The Food and Drug Administration had announced last week that it was ordering manufacturers to stop making 14 medications including the liquid morphine. All were developed so long ago they had never received FDA approval. http://www.physorg.com/news158517265.html Medicine & Health Thu, 09 Apr 2009 17:34:47 EST news158517265 (AP) -- The government ordered 14 unapproved narcotic painkillers off the market Tuesday, prescription versions of potent morphine, hydromorphone and oxycodone. The Food and Drug Administration told nine manufacturers to quit distributing the drugs within 90 days - but insisted there are plenty of legal versions of the painkillers being sold for patients who need relief. http://www.physorg.com/news157734862.html Medicine & Health Tue, 31 Mar 2009 16:14:54 EST news157734862 (PhysOrg.com) -- Investigators at Georgia State University`s Neuroscience Institute and Center for Behavioral Neuroscience are the first to identify the most likely reason analgesic drug treatment is usually less potent in females than males. This discovery is a major step toward finding more effective treatments for females suffering from persistent pain. http://www.physorg.com/news150389673.html Medicine & Health Mon, 05 Jan 2009 14:54:33 EST news150389673 Investigators at Georgia State University's Neuroscience Institute and Center for Behavioral Neuroscience are the first to identify the most likely reason analgesic drug treatment is usually less potent in females than males. This discovery is a major step toward finding more effective treatments for females suffering from persistent pain. http://www.physorg.com/news149247807.html Medicine & Health Tue, 23 Dec 2008 09:43:27 EST news149247807 A recent study conducted by researchers at Georgia State University is the first of its kind to demonstrate that administration of preemptive morphine prior to a painful procedure in infancy blocks the long-term negative consequences of pain in adult rodents. These studies have serious implications for the way anesthetics and analgesics are administered to neonates prior to surgery. Infant rodents that did not receive preemptive pain medication prior to surgery were less sensitive to the effects of morphine in adulthood. This means that infants undergoing invasive procedures at birth that do not receive any pain medicine will require more morphine in adulthood to modulate their pain. http://www.physorg.com/news144945927.html Medicine & Health Mon, 03 Nov 2008 14:45:27 EST news144945927 Using pain treatments which contain codeine may be risky for some breastfeeding mothers, according to researchers at The University of Western Ontario, and the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in Toronto. Lead author Dr. Gideon Koren published research in the journal, Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics which suggests that the codeine used in some pain relief drugs can actually have harmful and even fatal results for infants when ingested by some breastfeeding mothers. http://www.physorg.com/news138463273.html Medicine & Health Wed, 20 Aug 2008 15:01:13 EST news138463273