A powerful new indication for par's candidate - withdrawal from addiction
Nausea Drug May Treat Withdrawal From Addiction, Study Shows
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By Elizabeth Lopatto
(Bloomberg) -- GlaxoSmithKline Plc’s Zofran, approved to treat nausea and vomiting, appears to reduce symptoms of withdrawal from morphine, codeine, heroin, OxyContin and similar pain medicines, a study shows.
The drug, which is now available as a generic called ondansetron, was used to treat eight men for morphine withdrawal, according to a study in the Journal of Pharmacogenetics and Genomics. Compared with placebo, the patients receiving ondansetron were less likely to experience anxiety, hot flashes, aches, restlessness, nausea and vomiting.
Pain medications such as morphine, codeine, and oxycodone are among a class of drugs known as opioids, and are among the most-abused prescription drugs, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Withdrawal from the drugs increases anxiety, pain sensitivity, as well as creates flu-like symptoms, and may be one reason why many addicts remain dependent. The findings may lead to a new way for treating painkiller addiction.
“Getting off opioids can be tough, and we think there’s a better way to do it,” said Lawrence Chu, assistant professor of anesthesia at Stanford University’s School of Medicine in Palo Alto, California, in a telephone interview. “This is new evidence for a better way to treat this problem.”
Current treatments for opioid withdrawal are “suboptimal,” the authors wrote. Either controlled substances such as methadone are used to wean the addict off the drug, or medicines like clonidine, which have effects on blood movement, are used.
In the study, researchers pretreated eight healthy men with odansetron or placebo before inducing opioid withdrawal with an injection of morphine and naloxone, a drug used to counteract morphine. Odansetron pretreatment reduced signs of withdrawal.
Fewer Symptoms
None of the patients reported sweating on ondansetron, compared with 40 percent on placebo. More than 60 percent of patients on placebo experienced restlessness, compared with 30 percent on the drug. Treated patients reported no vomiting, muscle twitches, abdominal cramps or anxiety.
The study, which was funded by the National Institutes of Health, NIDA, and the National Institute of General Medical Science, began in mice. The rodents were given morphine for several days to create addiction. Then researchers stopped supplying the drug, causing withdrawal.
Some mice were more affected by withdrawal than others. By comparing symptoms between types of mice, it was possible for the scientists to discover that one gene determined the severity of withdrawal.
The gene contained instructions for making a cell receptor, called 5-HT3, for the brain chemical serotonin. When scientists blocked the receptor in addicted mice, by dosing them with ondansetron, they showed fewer symptoms of withdrawal.
Because ondansetron is already approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and has minimal side-effects, the scientists moved quickly onto tests in people.
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