Search PubMed⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search PubMed

Results for “NARCOTICS”

Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 865 records · Page 48Linked to original sources
PubMed2005

Silencing nature's narcotics: metabolic engineering of the opium poppy.

The opium poppy, Papaver somniferum L., and its narcotic and analgesic alkaloids, have an ancient history of use (and abuse) by humankind. A recent article by Allen and co-workers describes the metabolic engineering of morphine biosynthesis to block morphine formation and accumulate a potentially valuable pathway intermediate, (S)-reticuline. This work highlights the potential for modifying the production of pharmaceuticals in plants, but also raises questions about the complex regulation of biosynthetic pathways.

Alkaloids↗
PubMed2005

Palatal perforation associated with intranasal prescription narcotic abuse.

BACKGROUND: Palatal perforation resulting from insufflation of cocaine has been well documented. In comparison, reports of destructive orofacial lesions resulting from intranasal abuse of prescription narcotics are rare. We present the clinical and histologic findings in a case of palatal perforation arising in a patient abusing a prescription opioid drug. The patient denied any history of cocaine use but admitted to habitually crushing and snorting a hydrocodone/acetaminophen preparation. Study design The patient presented to our clinic seeking resolution of speech difficulties associated with an oroantral fistula. Surgical repair of the defect had been attempted unsuccessfully in the past. In addition to blood and chemistry panels, endoscopic examination was conducted, with removal of several biopsy specimens for histologic evaluation and flow cytometry. Biopsy specimens included both lesional and perilesional tissue from within the oral and nasopharyngeal cavities. Culture and cytology for fungal organisms were also performed. RESULTS: Histopathologic examination revealed normal mucosa with diffuse and focal inflammatory changes and no evidence of malignancy. Polarizable foreign material was noted in the specimens. The absence of lymphoid neoplasia was confirmed by flow cytometric analysis. The toxicology panel was positive for the presence of opiates in the blood. Culture and cytology were positive for candidal organisms. A palatal obturator was fabricated for the patient, producing significant improvement in the quality of speech. CONCLUSIONS: This may represent a case of palatal perforation resulting from abuse of a drug other than cocaine. The potential for drugs other than cocaine to produce destructive orofacial lesions should be considered.

Administration, Intranasal↗
PubMed1975

Comparative gas chromatographic analysis of narcotics. III. Phenmetrazine hydrochloride.

Chemical signatures of phenmetrazine hydrochloride were studied by gas chromatography. The inter-batch variations of the signatures were found to be large whereas the intra-batch variations were usually small. The method is used for the tracing of seized phenmetrazine hydrochloride samples to common sources, which in turn may permit further tracing back to chains of illicit distribution of this drug. The applicability of the method to other narcotics is also discussed.

Chromatography, Gas↗
PubMed1976

A study of factors that influence the severity of neonatal narcotic withdrawal.

A prospective study of 196 drug-addicted mothers and their infants was conducted to determine the maternal, fetal, or environmental factors that may affect the severity of narcotic withdrawal in the infants. The severity of neonatal withdrawal did not correlate with the infant's gestational age, sex, race, or Apgar score, not to maternal age, parity, duration of heroin intake, or the level of morphine measured in the infant's urine or blood. Reduction in the amount of illumination and noise in a study nursery also did not lower the incidence of severe withdrawal in the infants. There was, however, significant correlation between the severity of withdrawal in the infant and the maternal methadone dose (p less than 0.025). It is therefore recommended that mothers on methadone treatment be put on a low dose of the drug (less than 20 mg/day) as soon as is safely possible to prevent serious withdrawal in her infant.

Apgar Score↗
PubMed1977

Neonatal seizures associated with narcotic withdrawal.

Among 302 neonates passively addicted to narcotics, 18 had seizures that were attributed to withdrawal. Of those 18 infants, 10 were among the 127 infants exposed to methadone (7.8%), whereas only one of them was among the 83 infants exposed to heroin (1.2%). Generalized motor seizures and myoclonic jerks were the predominant convulsive manifestations. Paregoric was more effective than was diazepam in controlling and preventing these seizures once they occurred. Electroencephalograms were obtained on 13 neonates in the interictal period; 12 of these ECGs were normal. Three infants, two with myoclonic jerks, had paroxysmal brain wave activity at the time of the seizures.

Diazepam↗
PubMed1977

Use of nalotone to to reverse narcotic respiratory depression in the newborn infant.

Twenty neonates whose mothers had received meperidine (1.0 to 1.5 mg/kg) intravenously within three hours of delivery were studied to determine the effectiveness of naloxone in reversing neonatal respiratory depression. The following measurements were carried out within 20 to 30 minutes after delivery: minute ventilation, end tidal CO2, and ventilatory response to CO2. These determinations were repeated after administration of either placebo or naloxone, 0.01 mg/kg intramuscularly. Minute ventilation and PAco were within a normal range before medication in both groups, but the slope of the CO2 response curve was decreased, indicating mild-to-moderate respiratory depression. After administration of placebo the test results did not change significantly. After administration of naloxone, VE increased significantly (P less than 0.05) and the slope of the CO2 response curve doubled (P less than 0.001). Naloxone effectively reverses narcotic depression of the respiratory center in the newborn infant.

Carbon Dioxide↗
PubMed1983

Fetal and postnatal growth of children born to narcotic-dependent women.

We studied the effect of heroin and methadone on birth length and 3-year stature of children of untreated heroin addicts (n = 22), women receiving methadone maintenance therapy (95% were polydrug users) (n = 21), and a drug-free comparison group (n = 28), after adjustment for biologic, demographic, and health variables. The mean birth lengths of both groups of drug-exposed infants were significantly below that of a comparison group; however, group means were similar after adjustment for sex, race, prenatal care, pregnancy weight gain, obstetrical risk, maternal education, and smoking. At 3 years of age the mean height was comparable for all groups. When adjusted for birth length, parental height, and smoking, the methadone group was significantly shorter than children exposed to heroin in utero, and the comparison group assumed an intermediate position. These data indicate that the effect of heroin and methadone on intrauterine growth cannot be differentiated from that of associated factors, and that postnatal growth of children exposed to narcotics during pregnancy is no more impaired than that of a high-risk comparison group. Children of all three groups deserve continued observation and efforts to improve their environment in order that their full potential might be achieved.

Body Height↗
PubMed1999

Narcotic effects produced by nitrous oxide and hyperbaric nitrogen narcosis in rats performing a fixed-ratio test.

Narcosis is a neurological syndrome that reduces capacities of divers. Although this phenomenon appeared at the end of 19th century, the mechanisms are not yet elucidated. The greatest technical problem is that these studies are carried out under hyperbaric conditions. Nitrous oxide is known to be an inducer of narcosis, at atmospheric pressure. The aim of this study is to compare two narcotic environments; a normobaric narcosis under several percentages of nitrous oxide, and an hyperbaric narcosis under 0.9 MPa of Nitrox (N2O2 mixture). This comparison is realized on rats submitted to a fixed-ratio 15 test, in which they have to press a lever to get rewarded. The results show significant performances decreases: the number of pressed lever are reduced by 50% under Nitrox and by 70% under N2O. Nitrous oxide could be considered as a normobaric model of hyperbaric narcosis.

Animals↗
PubMed1975

Narcotic analgesics and delayed gastric emptying during labour.

The rate of gastric emptying in women during labour was estimated indirectly from the kinetics of absorption of orally administered paracetamol (acetaminophen). Gastric emptying was normal in patients who had not received a narcotic analgesic but was markedly delayed in women given pethidine, diamorphine, or pentazocine. The inhibitory effect of diamorphine and pethidine on gastric emptying was not reversed by metoclopramide.

Acetaminophen↗
PubMed1976

Apparatus for patient-controlled administration of intravenous narcotics during labour.

The intermittent intravenous administration of narcotic analgesics had advantages over intramuscular administration, but is often impracticable. The design of a prototype apparatus is described, from which analgesic, pethidine, can be self-administered intravenously during labour. The apparatus consists of a syringe pump and control system from which the patient can demand an increment of analgesic. The minimum interval between increments and the dose of the increment are preset. A demand for analgesia is only successful when the patient passes a reaction-time test, subsequently modified. The apparatus has been used by forty-two mothers in labour. The mean total dose self-administered (2.2 mg/kg) was well within the prescribed limits, suggesting that mothers regulated their demand. The apparatus appears acceptable and safe in labour. The apparatus will probably be of value in comparative studies of analgesics.

Anesthesia, Intravenous↗
PubMed2002

A narcotic dose of carbon monoxide induces neuronal haeme oxygenase and nitric oxide synthetase in sheep.

Twelve Romney ewes were exposed to either 1% carbon monoxide (CO) in air (n=6) or room air alone for 120 min and were killed 15 days later for histological and immunohistochemical examination. This dose of CO was narcotic and induced both haeme oxygenase and nitric oxide synthetase in brain neurons, but not in endothelial cells. The mechanism of the induction is not established here, but cellular theories of CO toxicity will need to be re-examined given these results.

Animals↗
PubMed1996

Early family adversity as a precursor to narcotic addiction.

This retrospective study examined differences among three groups of urban males in the prevalence of various family risk factors occurring before age 11 and their independent contributions to subsequent deviance. The groups included: narcotic addicts; never-addicted peer controls who were associates of the addicts at age 11; and never-addicted community controls not associated with the addicts. Sixty-four percent of the addicts, compared to slightly under 40% of both control groups, reportedly experienced one or more family risk factors involving deviant behavior among family members and family disruption before age 11. While community controls differed from addicts on both family deviance and disruption in family structure, peer controls differed from addicts only on disruption of family structure. For the total sample, both family deviance and family disruption experienced before age 11 were significantly associated with crime severity level at age 11. Implications of these findings for future substance abuse research and intervention are discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2002

Narcotics Anonymous participation and changes in substance use and social support.

In Victoria (a southern Australian state) in 1995, Narcotics Anonymous had a small but growing membership providing an opportunity to study the early experience of new self-help members. Ninety-one new members were interviewed and 62 (68%) were reinterviewed after 12 months. Three measures of self-help participation were examined: service role involvement, step work, and stable meeting attendance. Lower prior involvement in treatment services and greater participation in self-help predicted subsequent self-help participation. Higher levels of secondary school education predicted service role involvement and longer periods in stable meeting attendance. Higher self-help participation through the 12 months prior to follow-up was associated with lower levels of hazardous alcohol use and higher emotional support at reinterview. Multivariate regression analysis suggested stable self-help meeting attendance and step work continued to predict reductions in hazardous alcohol use and improvements in social support, after controlling for a range of alternative predictors.

Adult↗
PubMed1986

Synthetic 1,4-disubstituted-1,4-dihydro-5H-tetrazol-5-one derivatives of fentanyl: alfentanil (R 39209), a potent, extremely short-acting narcotic analgesic.

The synthesis of a series of N-1,4-disubstituted-1,4-dihydro-5H-tetrazol-5-one piperidinyl derivatives of fentanyl, carfentanil, and sufentanil is described. The 1-substituted tetrazolinones 2 were essentially prepared via the addition reaction of aluminium azide to isocyanates or acid chlorides in tetrahydrofuran. Alkylation of 2 under neutral or weakly basic conditions afforded almost exclusively the 1,4-disubstituted tetrazolinone isomer 3. N-Alkylation of the piperidine derivatives 4 with 3 in dimethylformamide yielded 9a-v. The morphinomimetic activity in rats, after intravenous injection of the compounds, was evaluated in the tail withdrawal reflex test. The fentanyl analogues 9a-c (R4 = H) are inactive at the measured dose of 2.5 or 10 mg/kg (iv). For the carfentanil analogues (R4 = COOCH3) maximal narcotic activity is found when R1 represents a lower alkyl group (9d-f) or a thienylethyl group (9n). The sufentanil analogues (R4 = CH2OCH3) show the same structure-activity relationship (SAR) profile as the carfentanil derivatives (R4 = COOCH3). The structural requirements for optimal activity are in good agreement with earlier observations in the series of 10-12. From the series the ethyl tetrazolinone derivative 9r, alfentanil (R 39209), was selected for clinical investigation. As an analgesic in rats, 9r is 140 times more potent than pethidine 15 and 72 times more potent than morphine 14. Alftentanil reaches its peak effect within 1 min after injection, and its duration of action is very short; at 2 times its MED50, 9r has a duration of action of 11 min. This duration is 30 min for 10 and 90 min for 14. Compared to 10, alfentanil 9r is about 4 times faster but 3 times shorter acting. Structurally, 9r shows most resemblance to sufentanil 12, since it differs only by substitution of a 4-ethyltetrazolinone ring for the thiophene ring. The considerable differences in their pharmacological profiles were explained in terms of marked variations in physicochemical and, hence, pharmacokinetic properties.

Alfentanil↗
PubMed1975

Quantum chemical studies of morphine-like opiate narcotics. Effect of N-substituent variations.

Quantum chemical calculations including extensive conformational variations are performed on three morphine-like analgesics with varying N-substituents using the PCILO and INDO methods. The three compounds, morphine, nalorphine, and N-phenethylmorphine, have been shown experimentally to exemplify opiate narcotic agonism, antagonism, and increased agonism, respectively. In this study, these properties are correlated with the electronic and conformational results. The electronic properties of the fused ring skeleton including specifically the cationic region around the nitrogen are relatively unaffected by varying N-substituents. The properties studied include net charges, bond polarities, and the nature and energy of the highest filled and lowest empty molecular orbitals. The conformational behavior appears to be the main cause of differing receptor binding and interaction with the active site and is discussed in these terms.

Binding Sites↗
PubMed1979

Blockage of narcotic-induced dopamine receptor supersensitivity by cyclo(Leu-Gly).

We have previously reported that the administration of cyclo(Leu-Gly) to mice prior to morphinization blocked the development of tolerance to the analgesic effects of morphine as well as the development of some signs of physical dependence. In the present series of experiments, the effect of the same peptide treatment on changes in dopamine receptor sensitivity induced by chronic morphine treatment were determined. Changes in dopamine receptor sensitivity were determined by measuring (i) the effect of the dopamine agonist apomorphine on locomotor activity and (ii) the hypothermic response to another dopamine agonist, piribedil. Mice that had received the chronic morphine treatment were found to require significantly less apomorphine to produce an increase in locomotor activity, and they exhibited a significantly greater hypothermic response to piribedil than did morphine-naive mice. The injection of 0.2 mumol of cyclo(Leu-Gly) per mouse 2 hr prio to morphine treatment prevented this increased response to both dopamine agonists. Administration of the peptide after the tolerance and dependence had developed did not alter morphine tolerant and dependent states states or the enhanced response to apomorphine or piribedil. It is concluded that dopamine receptor supersensitivity may be involved in the development of narcotic tolerance and physical dependence.

Animals↗
PubMed2005

Remembering the lizard: reconstructing sexuality in the rooms of narcotics anonymous.

The crack epidemic was devastating to poor American communities in part because of the destruction wrought by the system of exchanging sex for drugs, which was a key feature of the crack-use culture. Sex-for-drugs exchanges were often conducted under unsafe circumstances and were linked to the spread of AIDS and other STDs, as well as unplanned pregnancies. The existence of this alternative system of sexual relationships threatened the economic viability of established commercial sex work and undermined the status and power of women. Narcotics Anonymous (NA) meetings helped men and women recover from crack addiction through a well-described 12-step process. Described as the rooms, these time- and space-specific encounters helped people become sober in the context of neighborhoods that were centers of the drug trade. Because of the key role of sex in the crack culture, transformation of sexual relationships was essential to establishing and maintaining sobriety. The manner in which the rooms of NA influence the sexuality and lifeworld of addicted people is explored using Barker's theory of ecological psychology.

Adolescent↗