ArticleeNeuro
Reported Benefits of Low-Dose Naltrexone Appear to Be Independent of the Endogenous Opioid System Involving Proopiomelanocortin Neurons and β-Endorphin.
Article in eNeuro. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
What it found
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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
5 citing papers in PubMed, 8 citations in OpenAlex.
- Low-Dose Naltrexone in Chronic Pain Management: Mechanisms, Evidence, and Clinical Implications.Journal of personalized medicine · 2026Review
- Calcium Imaging in Vivo: How to Correctly Select and Apply Fiber Optic Photometric Indicators.Organogenesis · 2025Review
- Review
- Article
- Low-Dose Naltrexone (LDN) for Chronic Pain at a Single Institution: A Case Series.Journal of pain research · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Naltrexone is an opioid receptor antagonist approved for the treatment of alcohol and opioid use disorders at doses of 50-150 mg/d. Naltrexone has also been prescribed at much lower doses (3-6 mg/d) for the off-label treatment of inflammation and pain. Currently, a compelling mechanistic explanation for the reported efficacy of low-dose naltrexone (LDN) is lacking and none of the proposed mechanisms can explain patient reports of improved mood and sense of well-being. Here, we examined the possibility that LDN might alter the activity of the endogenous opioid system involving proopiomelanocortin (POMC) neurons in the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus (ARH) in male and female mice. Known actions of POMC neurons could account for changes in pain perception and mood. However, using electrophysiologic, imaging and peptide measurement approaches, we found no evidence for such a mechanism. LDN did not change the sensitivity of opioid receptors regulating POMC neurons, the production of the β-endorphin precursor
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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.