ArticleThe Journal of pharmacology and experimental therapeutics2012
Chronic methadone treatment shows a better cost/benefit ratio than chronic morphine in mice.
Article in The Journal of pharmacology and experimental therapeutics, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 20 citations in OpenAlex.
- Lysosomal down-regulation of the mu opioid receptor is opposed by the Retromer complex.Science advances · 2026Article
- Biased Opioid Receptor Agonists: Balancing Analgesic Efficacy and Side-Effect Profiles.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- Slow-sustained delivery of naloxone reduces typical naloxone-induced precipitated opioid withdrawal effects in male morphine-dependent mice.Journal of neuroscience research · 2022Article
- Effects of Three Consecutive Days of Morphine or Methadone Administration on Analgesia and Open-Field Activity in Mice with Ehrlich Carcinoma.Journal of the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science : JAALAS · 2021Article
- Opioid-galanin receptor heteromers mediate the dopaminergic effects of opioids.The Journal of clinical investigation · 2019Article
- Convallatoxin enhance the ligand-induced mu-opioid receptor endocytosis and attenuate morphine antinociceptive tolerance in mice.Scientific reports · 2019Article
- Identification of the First Marine-Derived Opioid Receptor "Balanced" Agonist with a Signaling Profile That Resembles the Endorphins.ACS chemical neuroscience · 2017Article
- Effects of Venlafaxine & Methadone Alone and in Combination with Spontaneous Morphine withdrawal Syndrome & Pain Sensation in Rats.Basic and clinical neuroscience · 2015Article
- In vivo and in vitro attenuation of naloxone-precipitated experimental opioid withdrawal syndrome by insulin and selective KATP channel modulator.Psychopharmacology · 2015Article
- Analyzing gene expression data in mice with the Neuro Behavior Ontology.Mammalian genome : official journal of the International Mammalian Genome Society · 2014Article
- Opioid receptor desensitization: mechanisms and its link to tolerance.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2014Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Chronic treatment of pain with opiate drugs can lead to analgesic tolerance and drug dependence. Although all opiate drugs can promote tolerance and dependence in practice, the severity of those unwanted side effects differs depending on the drug used. Although each opiate drug has its own unique set of pharmacological profiles, methadone is the only clinically used opioid drug that produces substantial receptor endocytosis at analgesic doses. Here, we examined whether moderate doses of methadone carry any benefits over chronic use of equianalgesic morphine, the prototypical opioid. Our data show that chronic administration of methadone produces significantly less analgesic tolerance than morphine. Furthermore, we found significantly reduced precipitated withdrawal symptoms after chronic methadone treatment than after chronic morphine treatment. Finally, using a novel animal model with a degrading μ-opioid receptor we showed that, although endocytosis seems to protect against tolerance development, endocytosis followed by receptor degradation produces a rapid onset of analgesic tolerance to methadone. Together, these data indicated that opioid drugs that promote receptor endocytosis and recycling, such as methadone, may be a better choice for chronic pain treatment than morphine and its derivatives that do not.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.