People addicted to heroin and prescription drugs such as codeine and morphine may be able to avoid severe withdrawal symptoms thanks to a commonly used pain medicine that was found to block the specific brain receptors that cause these symptoms.

 

The drug, called ondansetron or Zofran, is often used for chemotherapy patients suffering from nausea. It is not addictive and has few side effects.

 

Addiction to heroin and prescription drugs has been an overwhelming problem in the US over the last years. According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, about 12.5 million Americans aged 12 or older used prescription paid medications for non-medical purposes in 2007.

 

“Opioid abuse is rising at a faster rate than any other type of illicit drug use, yet only about a quarter of those dependent on opioids seek treatment. One barrier to treatment is that when you abruptly stop taking the drugs, there is a constellation of symptoms associated with withdrawal,” said lead author Dr. Larry F. Chu, assistant professor of anesthesia at Stanford University’s School of Medicine in Palo Alto, California.

 

For the study, Dr. Chu and colleagues treated eight healthy men with Zofran or placebo before inducing opioid withdrawal with an injection of morphine and naloxone, a drug used to counteract morphine. Zofran was found to reduce signs of withdrawal. Patients who received Zofran reported no sweating while 40 percent of patients on placebo did. Also, patients on Zofran reported no vomiting, muscle twitches, abdominal cramps or anxiety.

 

“Getting off opioids can be tough, and we think there’s a better way to do it. This is new evidence for a better way to treat this problem,” Dr. Chu said. He said they plan to conduct a larger study, and hope the results will be those expected.

 

The study is detailed in Tuesday’s online issue of the Journal of Pharmacogenetics and Genomics.