A deeper understanding of the communication inside the body when someone is going through opioid withdrawal has led to a new clinical trial at the University of Calgary. I don 't think I 've had a day in clinic in the last five years where I haven 't had a patient tell me they want to reduce the opioids they are taking. The problem is there are limited options to support them, and the withdrawal symptoms can be crippling.
" Dr. Lori Montgomery, MD '03, pain clinician and clinical lead for an opioid tapering study Montgomery, an associate professor at the Cumming School of Medicine (CSM), is recruiting people for a clinical trial using a safe, well tolerated drug for gout, probenecid, to help with the disabling symptoms of opioid withdrawal. "One of the first symptoms is really severe pain.
It 's very uncomfortable, and it's one of the biggest reasons people remain on opioids long term even if the opioids are no longer effective in reducing their chronic pain ," says Montgomery. The clinical trial Montgomery is leading is based on research done by Dr. Tuan Trang, PhD, a professor in the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine.
His lab has been studying how opioids affect key pain centres in the nervous system. In 2017, his research team made a breakthrough discovery that probenecid effectively reduces opioid withdrawal in rodents. Recently, they unraveled how this medication disrupts the abnormal brain-spinal cord communication that occurs during opioid withdrawal.
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