Determining How The Opioid System Controls Pain, Reward And Addictive Behavior

The opioid system controls pain, reward and addictive behaviors. Opioids exert their pharmacological actions through three opioid receptors, mu, delta and kappa whose genes have been cloned (Oprm, Oprd1 and Oprk1, respectively). Opioid receptors in the brain are activated by a family of endogenous peptides like enkephalins, dynorphins and endorphin, which are released by neurons. [click link for full article]

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Filed under: Alcohol / Addiction / Illegal Drugs on October 20th, 2007