Experimental drug shows promise for opioid withdrawal symptoms

While medicines are available to relieve withdrawal symptoms in people recovering from opioid addiction, they cause side effects and can maintain the brain changes that led to addiction in the first place, which can lead to relapse before treatment is completed. New research offers hope that a better solution may be on the horizon. Rapastinel, an experimental drug originally developed as an antidepressant, substantially reversed acute signs of opioid withdrawal in rats in just three days. …read more