Myths about will power and moral weakness keep people with opioid use disorder from receiving effective medications like methadone, buprenorphine and naltrexone

Prescription medications can help people with opioid use disorder avoid the risks of relapse and overdose. But stigma based on misperceptions about addiction limits their use.

Melissa Cyders, Professor of Psychology, Indiana University • conversation
July 13, 2023 • ~6 min

Your body naturally produces opioids without causing addiction or overdose – studying how this process works could help reduce the side effects of opioid drugs

Unlike opioid drugs like morphine and fentanyl that travel throughout the body, the opioids your body produces are released in small quantities to specific locations.

John Michael Streicher, Associate Professor of Pharmacology, University of Arizona • conversation
May 30, 2023 • ~7 min

How gene editing a person's brain cells could be used to curb the opioid epidemic

A person dies of opioid overdose once every 13 minutes in the US. A researcher proposes a way using existing technology to remove the opioid target in people to prevent overdoses.

Craig W. Stevens, Professor of Pharmacology, Oklahoma State University • conversation
Aug. 5, 2020 • ~9 min

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