ReviewThe Neuroscientist : a review journal bringing neurobiology, neurology and psychiatry2022
The Interplay between Chronic Pain, Opioids, and the Immune System.
Review in The Neuroscientist : a review journal bringing neurobiology, neurology and psychiatry, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 40 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
40 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 61 citations in OpenAlex.
- Opioid usage and COVID-19 prognosis: A systematic review and meta-analysis.The American journal of emergency medicine · 2022Pooled it
- Opioid-Sparing Effects of Erector Spinae Plane Block in Off-Pump Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting with Median Sternotomy: A Randomized Controlled Trial.Cardiovascular drugs and therapy · 2026Trial
- Neutrophil-to-Lymphocyte Ratio as an Indicator of Opioid-Induced Immunosuppression After Thoracoscopic Surgery: A Randomized Controlled Trial.Journal of pain research · 2022Trial
- Modulation of Mu-Opioid Receptor Expression and Functional Impairment of Natural Killer Cells in Neuropathic Pain: Implications for Biomarker Discovery and Personalized Therapies.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Article
- Gut microbiota dysbiosis and hepatic inflammation in morphine dependence and withdrawal: insights from a rat model.BMC gastroenterology · 2026Article
- Article
- Association between perioperative opioid consumption and postoperative outcomes in lung cancer surgery: evidence from a retrospective study with inflammatory and immune biomarker analysis.American journal of cancer research · 2026Article
- Preventive effects of crocin and meloxicam on morphine withdrawal symptoms in mice: behavioral and biochemical insights.BMC pharmacology & toxicology · 2025Article
- Mu-opioid receptor expression on B cells as a potential biomarker for chronic pain: a follow-up study with patients with fibromyalgia.Pain reports · 2025Article
- Research progress on the impact of opioids on the tumor immune microenvironment (Review).Molecular and clinical oncology · 2025Review
- Review
- Concomitant medication effects on patients with lung cancer taking immune checkpoint inhibitors a review.Medical oncology (Northwood, London, England) · 2025Review
- Postmarketing Research for Opioid Abuse-Deterrent Formulations: A Narrative Review.Journal of pain research · 2025Review
- The analgesic effect of green light on neuropathic pain: a mini-review of the literature and a proposal for future work.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- The impact of perioperative anesthesia management-induced immunosuppression on postoperative cancer recurrence and metastasis: a narrative review.Frontiers in oncology · 2025Review
- Direct Photobiomodulation Therapy on the Sciatic Nerve Significantly Attenuates Acute Nociceptive Sensitivity Without Affecting Motor Output.Neuromodulation : journal of the International Neuromodulation Society · 2024Article
- Association Between Socioeconomic Inequalities in Pain and All-Cause Mortality in the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study: Longitudinal Cohort Study.JMIR public health and surveillance · 2024Article
- Suprascapular nerve peripheral nerve stimulation for pediatric cancer pain: a case series.Pain management · 2024Article
- Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 5 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Chronic pain represents one of the most serious worldwide medical problems, in terms of both social and economic costs, often causing severe and intractable physical and psychological suffering. The lack of biological markers for pain, which could assist in forming clearer diagnoses and prognoses, makes chronic pain therapy particularly arduous and sometimes harmful. Opioids are used worldwide to treat chronic pain conditions, but there is still an ambiguous and inadequate understanding about their therapeutic use, mostly because of their dual effect in acutely reducing pain and inducing, at the same time, tolerance, dependence, and a risk for opioid use disorder. In addition, clinical studies suggest that opioid treatment can be associated with a high risk of immune suppression and the development of inflammatory events, worsening the chronic pain status itself. While opioid peptides and receptors are expressed in both central and peripheral nervous cells, immune cells, and tissues, the role of opioids and their receptors, when and why they are activated endogenously and what their exact role is in chronic pain pathways is still poorly understood. Thus, in this review we aim to highlight the interplay between pain and immune system, focusing on opioids and their receptors.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.