| Title |
Zinc involvement in opioid addiction and analgesia – should zinc supplementation be recommended for opioid-treated persons?
|
|---|---|
| Published in |
Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy, August 2015
|
| DOI | 10.1186/s13011-015-0025-2 |
| Pubmed ID | |
| Authors |
Diana Ciubotariu, Cristina Mihaela Ghiciuc, Cătălina Elena Lupușoru |
| Abstract |
Zinc chelators were shown to facilitate some opioid-withdrawal signs in animals. Zinc deficiency, which affects more than 15 % the world's population, is also common among opioid consumers and opioid-treated animals exhibit misbalances of zinc distribution. The present study focuses on how zinc ions interfere with opioid dependence/addiction and analgesia, trying to preliminary discuss if zinc supplementation in opioid-users should be recommended in order to reduce the risk of addiction. All relevant literature was searched up to April 2015. The search was performed using the term "zinc" plus combinations of following terms: "opioid receptors", "opioid" or representatives of this class, "addiction", "dependence", "analgesia", and "pain". Human, animal, in vitro studies and reviews were including. Both human and animal studies revealed decreased serum zinc under opioid-administration conditions, attributed mainly to increased urinary elimination (humans) or redistribution (animals). Moreover, animal studies revealed decreased brain zinc levels in morphine-treated animals, with increased zinc hepatic levels, but also an enhancement of endogenous opioid system activity and a possible reduction of morphine withdrawal by zinc. In vitro studies revealed reduction of opioid ligands binding to receptors by zinc. However, the very few in vivo animal studies on opioid analgesia revealed controversial results, as zinc demonstrated clear analgesic effect, but zinc associated to opioids doesn't result in a potentiation of the analgesic effect. Zinc dietary supplementation in patients treated with opioids for cancer-related chronic pain should be considered, due to the high incidence of zinc deficiency, also well-documented in opioid consumers. The low toxicity of orally-administered zinc also pleads for this idea. The main contra-argument to zinc administration in opioid-treated persons is related to the way zinc influences opioid-induced analgesia. |
X Demographics
The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 3 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 1 | 33% |
| Unknown | 2 | 67% |
Demographic breakdown
| Type | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Members of the public | 2 | 67% |
| Practitioners (doctors, other healthcare professionals) | 1 | 33% |
Mendeley readers
The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 62 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Unknown | 62 | 100% |
Demographic breakdown
| Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Student > Ph. D. Student | 11 | 18% |
| Researcher | 10 | 16% |
| Student > Master | 6 | 10% |
| Student > Bachelor | 5 | 8% |
| Other | 4 | 6% |
| Other | 12 | 19% |
| Unknown | 14 | 23% |
| Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Medicine and Dentistry | 13 | 21% |
| Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology | 6 | 10% |
| Nursing and Health Professions | 5 | 8% |
| Agricultural and Biological Sciences | 5 | 8% |
| Psychology | 3 | 5% |
| Other | 11 | 18% |
| Unknown | 19 | 31% |
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 6. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 09 April 2024.
All research outputs
#6,267,505
of 25,378,162 outputs
Outputs from Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy
#345
of 741 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#66,325
of 275,773 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy
#4
of 11 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,378,162 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 75th percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 741 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 13.5. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 53% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 275,773 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done well, scoring higher than 75% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 11 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 63% of its contemporaries.