Understanding the use of diverted buprenorphine

Buprenorphine is a µ-opioid receptor partial agonist (Bloms-Funke et al., 2000) approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of opioid use disorder (OUD). At low doses, buprenorphine has effects similar to µ-opioid full agonists; at high doses there is a ceiling on its agonist activity (Wa lsh et al., 1994). As higher doses are reached, partial agonists function as antagonists—occupying receptors without activating them (or partially activating them)—while simultaneously displacing or blocking full agonists from binding the receptors (Greenwald et al., 2003).

Source: Drug and Alcohol Dependence - October 12, 2018 Category: Addiction Authors: Theodore J. Cicero, Matthew S. Ellis, Howard D. Chilcoat Tags: Full length article Source Type: research