Given how profound an influence opioids have on the world – for better or worse – scientists know surprisingly little about how these drugs actually work. A recent study led by researchers from ...

For decades, opioids have been the blunt instrument of modern pain care, powerful enough to quiet severe suffering yet risky ...

New research undertaken by American and Chinese researchers may pave the way for safer opioid painkillers, thanks to the use of cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) to examine the detailed structures of ...

DOPr endocytosis and endosomal signaling by protein kinase C (PKC) and extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) pathways mediated the sustained inhibitory actions of endogenous opioids and DOPr ...

Having a pill that alleviates chronic pain without adverse side effects or the risk of addiction remains an unmet pharmaceutical need for millions of people currently using traditional opioid drugs.

A drug called buprenorphine may be the best tool doctors have to fight the fentanyl crisis. Why hasn’t it been more widely adopted? A dose of buprenorphine, an opioid that can help treat addiction to ...

In a new study evaluating meditation for chronic lower back pain, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine have discovered that men and women utilize different biological ...

When you were a child and fell playing outside, a single bandage — a placebo of sorts — could take away the pain. The placebo effect has long been somewhat of a medical mystery. While researchers ...

Nearly impossible to measure, quantify, convey, pain is a truly mysterious human sensation. For the last 25 years in my life as a neurosurgeon, I have seen a lot of pain and suffering firsthand, so ...