Scientists Take big Step Toward Finding Non-Addictive Painkiller:
With the support of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, scientists at Wake Forest School of Medicine have been working to find a safe, non-addictive pain killer to help fight the current opioid crisis in this country.
And they may have done just that, though in an animal model.
Known as AT-121, the new chemical compound has dual therapeutic action that suppressed the addictive effects of opioids and produced morphine-like analgesic effects in non-human primates.
"In our study, we found AT-121 to be safe and non-addictive, as well as an effective pain medication," said Mei-Chuan Ko, Ph.D., professor of physiology and pharmacology at the School of Medicine, part of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.
"In addition, this compound also was effective at blocking abuse potential of prescription opioids, much like buprenorphine does for heroin, so we hope it could be used to treat pain and opioid abuse."
The findings are published in the Aug. 29 issue of the journal Science Translational Medicine.
The main objective of this study was to design and test a chemical compound that would work on both the mu opioid receptor, the main component in the most effective prescription pain killers, and the nociceptin receptor, which opposes or blocks the abuse and dependence-related side effects of mu-targeted opioids. Current opioid pain drugs, such as fentanyl and oxycodone, work only on the mu opioid receptor, which also produces unwanted side effects -- respiratory depression, abuse potential, increased sensitivity to pain and physical dependence.
"We developed AT-121 that combines both activities in an appropriate balance in one single molecule, which we think is a better pharmaceutical strategy than to have two drugs to be used in combination," Ko said.
In the study, the researchers observed that AT-121 showed the same level of pain relief as an opioid, but at a 100-times lower dose than morphine. At that dose, it also blunted the addictive effects of oxycodone, a commonly abused prescription drug.
[...] "Our data shows that targeting the nociceptin opioid receptor not only dialed down the addictive and other side-effects, it provided effective pain relief," Ko said. "The fact that this data was in nonhuman primates, a closely related species to humans, was also significant because it showed that compounds, such as AT-121, have the translational potential to be a viable opioid alternative or replacement for prescription opioids."
Journal Reference:
- Huiping Ding, Norikazu Kiguchi, Dennis Yasuda, Pankaj R. Daga, Willma E. Polgar, James J. Lu, Paul W. Czoty, Shiroh Kishioka, Nurulain T. Zaveri, Mei-Chuan Ko. A bifunctional nociceptin and mu opioid receptor agonist is analgesic without opioid side effects in nonhuman primates. Science Translational Medicine, 2018; 10 (456): eaar3483 DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.aar3483
Related: Morphine? Nope. Centipede Venom a Much Less Addictive Way to Kill Pain, Says Chinese Team
Compound From Marine Snail is Potent Pain Reliever
New Class of Compounds Could Lead to More Effective Painkillers
Developing a Nonaddictive Opioid Painkiller
US Painkiller Restriction Linked to 'Significant' Increase in Illicit Online Drug Trading
Related Stories
Chinese scientists have found a new chemical compound in the venom of a centipede native to China that can act as a painkiller with no negative side effects like those associated with morphine.
The discovery could potentially help a country's military reduce its reliance on morphine for battleground injuries, or even create an army of soldiers with the ability to fight on after sustaining wounds in combat, pundits say.
"It is completely different from morphine," said Professor Lai Ren, the lead scientist of the study.
"Morphine is only intended for emergency use. It has many side effects and can lead to addiction over the longer-term," added Lai, who works with the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Kunming Institute of Zoology in southern Yunnan province.
A tiny snail may offer an alternative to opioids for pain relief. Scientists at the University of Utah have found a compound that blocks pain by targeting a pathway not associated with opioids. Research in rodents indicates that the benefits continue long after the compound have cleared the body. The findings were reported online in the February 20 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The opioid crisis has reached epidemic proportions. Opioids is[sic] highly addictive and according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 91 Americans die every day from an opioid overdose. The medical community is in need of alternative therapies that do not rely on the opioid pathways to relieve pain.
"Nature has evolved molecules that are extremely sophisticated and can have unexpected applications," begins Baldomera Olivera, Ph.D., professor in biology at the University of Utah. "We were interested in using venoms to understand different pathways in the nervous system."
Conus regius, a small marine cone snail common to the Caribbean Sea, packs a venomous punch, capable of paralyzing and killing its prey.
In this study, the researchers found that a compound isolated from snail's venom, Rg1A, acts on a pain pathway distinct from that targeted by opioid drugs. Using rodent models, the scientists showed that α9α10 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChR) functions as a pain pathway receptor and that RgIA4 is an effective compound to block this receptor. The pathway adds to a small number of nonopioid-based pathways that could be further developed to treat chronic pain.
Interestingly, the duration of the pain relief is long, greatly outlasting the presence of the compound in the animal's system.
The compound works its way through the body in 4 hours, but the scientists found the beneficial effects lingered. "We found that the compound was still working 72 hours after the injection, still preventing pain," said J. Michael McIntosh, M.D., professor of psychiatry at the University of Utah Health Sciences. The duration of the outcome may suggest that the snail compound has a restorative effect on some components of the nervous system.
"What is particularly exciting about these results is the aspect of prevention," said McIntosh. "Once chronic pain has developed, it is difficult to treat. This compound offers a potential new pathway to prevent pain from developing in the first place and offer a new therapy to patients who have run out of options."
The researchers will continue to the next step of pre-clinical testing to investigate the safety and effectiveness of a new drug therapy.
Journal Reference:
Inhibition of α9α10 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors prevents chemotherapy-induced neuropathic pain, PNAS, www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1621433114
Related Articles:
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2016-08-scientists-safe-non-addictive-opioid-analgesic.html
Scientists have found a selective enzyme inhibitor that may be more effective than other painkillers with less side effects:
Pain and addiction have many biochemical roots, which makes it difficult to treat them without affecting other critical functions in cells. Today, the most potent painkillers are opioids, including heroin, oxycodone, and hydrocodone. In addition to interrupting pain, they inhibit enzymes known as adenylyl cyclases (ACs) that convert cells' energy currency, ATP, into a molecule involved in intracellular chemical communication known as cyclic AMP (cAMP). Chronic opioid use can make cells increase the activity of ACs to compensate, causing cAMP levels to skyrocket. When opioid users try to stop using, their cAMP levels remain high, and drugs that reduce those levels—like buprenorphine—have unwanted side effects.
A promising candidate for selectively reducing cAMP is one particular AC enzyme, known as AC1. Humans have 10 ACs, all of which convert ATP to cAMP. But they are expressed at different levels in different tissues, suggesting they serve disparate purposes. Over the last 15 years, experiments on mice without the gene for AC1 have shown they have reduced sensitivity to pain and fewer signs of opioid dependence. But the enzyme, along with its close relative AC8, also appears to be heavily involved in memory formation in a brain region known as the hippocampus. That could be bad news for a possible medicine that blocks AC1, says Val Watts, a pharmacologist at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. But the potential good news, he says, is that other animal studies suggest that the memory-forming work of AC1 and AC8 is redundant. So if AC1 is blocked selectively, it's likely to have only minimal effects on memory.
[...] Watts and his colleagues decided to set up a chemical test to screen a small group of compounds similar to forskolin, in search of one that inhibits AC1 but not AC8. That is just what they found [DOI: 10.1126/scisignal.aah5381] [DX], they report this month in Science Signaling. In cell-based studies, the compound, called ST034307, inhibits AC1 and reduces cAMP, while leaving AC8 unaffected. And when given to mice, it also reduces their sensitivity to pain.
Researchers are closing in on a non-addictive opiod-based pain-killer with limited side effects:
[...] [An] international team [has] captured the crystal structure of the kappa opioid receptor—critical for providing pain relief—in action on the surface of human brain cells. The researchers also made another important discovery: a new opioid-based compound that, unlike current opioids, activates only the kappa opioid receptor, raising hopes that they may develop a painkiller that has no risk of addiction and, therefore, none of the devastating consequences and side effects that accompany it.
The findings were published Jan. 4 in the journal Cell.
[...] Currently, most opioids bind to several opioid receptors on the membrane of brain cells, which has its share of drawbacks. They alleviate pain but cause a range of side effects, from nausea to numbness, constipation, anxiety, severe dependency, hallucinations and even death by respiratory depression.
In this study, the computer models revealed the formulations that would create the strongest bond between the ligand and the kappa opioid receptor without affecting other receptors.
Katritch said the latest research may pave the way for a major drug breakthrough.
"We have already found the structure of the inactive kappa opioid receptor highly useful for discovering potential candidates for a new painkiller," Katritch said. "Now with the structure of the active receptor, we have a template for designing new types of pain medications that have no disruptive side effects for patients and would reduce the burden that opioid addiction has placed on society."
Journal reference: Tao Che et al. Structure of the Nanobody-Stabilized Active State of the Kappa Opioid Receptor, Cell (2018). DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2017.12.011
Having known several people who got addicted to painkillers after receiving prescriptions for oxycodone or similar compounds from their doctors, this can't happen soon enough.
The US Drug Enforcement Administration's decision to restrict prescription drugs containing hydrocodone (a popular opioid painkiller) was associated with a 'significant' increase in illicit trading of opioids through online markets, finds a study published by The BMJ today.
In this study, the term opioids refers to drugs that are usually available by prescription but here are sourced illegally through the dark net and are not prescribed by anyone.
The findings show that the proportion of sales of opioids through illicit markets doubled over the study period and sales of more potent opioids also increased. Overdose death rates have quadrupled in the US since 1999, and 40% of all deaths involve prescription opioids, which are primarily used for pain relief.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by hendrikboom on Thursday August 30 2018, @05:44PM (17 children)
I remember learning that morphine taken for pain is not addictive; that only morphine taken in addition to what's needed for pain is addictive.
That turns out to have been a blatant lie.
Now I find myself wondering whether to let me be convinced of the nonaddictiveness of this new painkiller.
-- hendrik
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 30 2018, @05:56PM (5 children)
My (limited) understanding is that "addictive" varies a lot from one person to another. Over the years I've heard the phrase, "addictive personality" to describe someone that could become addicted quite easily (to a number of addictive substances).
(Score: 5, Interesting) by stormreaver on Thursday August 30 2018, @06:30PM (4 children)
I remember when I had to have a hemorrhoid removed several years ago. I was prescribed Hydrocodone and Acetaminophen for pain control.
But due to a mistake the surgeon made in preparation, my stitches ripped through the healing scars frequently. I therefore needed to refill my prescription a few times. By the third refill, which was thankfully the last one I needed, the prescribing nurse was one hair away from histrionics. She told me that there would be no more refills after this one. When I asked her why, she said that it seemed to her that I was developing an addiction.
I was pretty pissed off at that point, and told her that the only thing I was addicted to was not having my fucking stitches rip through my flesh due to the surgeon's fuckup in preparation. She said that I had gone through significantly more Hydrocodone than is typical for the procedure I had. I replied with, "No shit!" which had a double meaning at that point, because I hadn't had a bowel movement since my surgery more than a week prior. "And I expect to continue using significantly more Hydrocodone until my stitches stop ripping through my ass!"
Halfway through my final bottle, I decided that I needed to cut the rats nest of ass hair clumping around the stitches to relieve the pain (I was easing up on my pain meds to stretch them out). I couldn't see what I was doing (for obvious reasons), but found the point where I needed to cut by feeling around until I felt the clump. I cut the clump, slid it off the end of the suture, then held it up in front of me to confirm my work. Much to my surprise, I wasn't holding a clump of hair. Instead, I was holding the knotted end of a blue suture. That sensation I interpreted as a hair knot sliding off the suture was actually the suture sliding out of my butt.
Needless to say, I was a bit worried. But at the same time, I realized that my pain was largely gone. I called my wife into the bathroom where I had performed the procedure, and told her I wasn't in any pain, and was just in light discomfort. Unfortunately, the blood residue that was now forming on my pad (her pad, actually. I started using hers during my recovery) scared the living shit out of her (fortunately, I was able to hold on for a few more days).
She called the E.R., which, after being apprised of the low level of bleeding, told her that everything was probably going to be fine. When the E.R. worker on the phone asked why I would do something so dramatic, I responded with, "they were going to stop my pain pills before my pain was gone. I needed to remove the source of pain so it would end when my prescription ended." The E.R. worker said that what I did was risky because I could have had major bleeding.
As it turns out, I made the right choice. My pain was largely gone by the time my final refill had run out (which I sorely needed after my first post-op bowel movement), so I didn't need (or even want) more Hydrocodone.
Since that time, it has always amazed me that Hydrocodone is supposed to be addictive. I had absolutely no desire for it after my pain stopped. Aside from making me a tad overemotional, its only effects were pain relief. That's why I have such a hard time believing there is an opiod crisis. It just seems so unlikely based on my personal experience.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 30 2018, @06:33PM
Are you a readhead?
(Score: 3, Informative) by EvilSS on Thursday August 30 2018, @07:15PM (2 children)
The other path is physiological dependence. This one can occur whether or not you are susceptible to abusing a drug. This is due to your body trying to maintain homeostasis, and adjusting your neurochemistry to counter a drug you are taking to get your brain back to where it thinks it's supposed to be. This can happen to anyone who is on long term (months, years) opioid therapy. Over time the pain requires higher and higher doses to treat. Patients like this are not getting a "high" but if they try to quit cold turkey, they can have withdrawal symptoms and the pain is usually unbearable. Often tapering the patient off the drugs is successful, and many realize when they are off them that they really no longer even need them. It's just that being on them for so long was causing their brains to boost the pain signals to compensate for the effects of the drug.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 30 2018, @11:23PM (1 child)
I use to be in the opiate are about as fun as aspirin camp and I had hydromorphone I.M. once it was the most enjoyable experience I ever had. Yet, I experience that indescriptible bliss after dental surgery that required them to break my jaw to extract a wisdom teeth. I am pretty sure that IV administred opiates are radically addictive.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Friday August 31 2018, @01:39AM
My wife didn't find opiates addictive after heart surgery. OTOH, she also had a strong pain suppression to even a small dosage, and additionally often took a lot longer than expected to recover consciousness after a general anesthetic. Etc. Her liver didn't degrade certain chemicals well.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 30 2018, @06:23PM (6 children)
Painkillers are easy to abuse, even when non-addictive. The issue tends to be that pain is incredibly subjective and that it's easy to wind up taking more and sooner over time.
Pain itself is completely within ones own mind and is a sign that the body is unhappy about something, taking the pills just turns the signal off without necessarily doing anything about the underlying cause. Which in some cases makes sense, the body sometimes does send out signals for pain that doesn't have a treatable origin, but every time a person takes a pill for something that should be treated, it just makes matters worse as now you're compounding the damage that the body wanted to avoid.
The pain pills that are viewed as addictive do other things as well that lead them to be addictive which makes matters worse.
Best thing to do is really to avoid taking any sort of pain killer if you're not being given any indication that the pain is temporary, a plan for dealing with the cause of the pain and a relevant plan for getting off the painkillers afterwards.
In many cases though, the painkillers are completely unnecessary as the pain starts to subside the moment you address the underlying condition. Hypnosis is shockingly effective at pain management for many people, so is using pain as a form of biofeedback, which is the whole point of why we hurt in the first place. If something causes pain, stop doing it.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Friday August 31 2018, @01:39AM (5 children)
There certainly is an aspect of pain that is in the mind, but it's not ALL in the mind. Pain can be damped down by various meditation techniques and hypnosis. The noxious awareness of the pain can be pushed out of the mind to an even greater extent, but even having done that, the body WILL still be reacting to the pain. You may feel only pressure but get the shakes and chills. You may still get inflammation. If it gets bad enough, you might suddenly black out.
Certainly, where possible the underlying cause of pain should be addressed. But having done so, healing will often go faster if the pain is also fully controlled, not just blocked out. Though there is a feedback loop, pain begets pain. The latter also ironically means that trying to hold out because you don't want to use a lot of pain killers can ultimately lead to more painkillers needed later.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Friday August 31 2018, @01:49AM (4 children)
Actually, pain *is* all in the mind, but that's not a very useful statement without a lot of additional qualifications. Every physical sensation only exists "in the mind". You can never know actual external reality, but only your mental construct of what it seems to be. So saying something is "all in the mind" isn't very useful unless you accompany it with lots of more definitive context.
That said, 'the mind" is reactive to the chemical environment within which it finds itself. It would almost be fair to say it's *only* reactive to the chemical environment within which it finds itself. And drugs are a part of that chemical environment.
And *that* said, different bodies react differently to chemical environments. For me, e.g., acetaminophen has essentially no effect on pain level. But aspirin and ibuprofen work fairly well (though far from perfectly). And what I generally wish they'd develop is a topical ointment to reduce inflamation at a specific site, say the toe or the knee. If the inflamation went away, so would the pain, and the inflamation isn't doing anything beneficial.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 1) by pTamok on Friday August 31 2018, @06:52AM
And *that* said, different bodies react differently to chemical environments. For me, e.g., acetaminophen has essentially no effect on pain level.
Aha! Another one.
I too have the problem of acetoaminophen aka paracetamol having little to no analgesic effect on me, which was, quite literally, a pain when my dentist prescribed 400mg tablets of the stuff for post root canal treatment. I may as well have been using Smarties (M&Ms) for pain relief.
I once came across an academic paper that discussed drug metabolism in general and made the somewhat surprising statement that roughly 20% of people have some non-standard reaction to drugs, including over-sensitivity and under-sensitivity, and a paper in the same field talking about the biochemical reasons behind acetaminophen having no analgesic effect in some people. Unfortunately, I can't find it again to wave under the nose of various medical professionals who discount my experience. For me, taking acetaminophen makes me feel slightly nauseated, and has little to no analgesic effect. I am thankful for the invention of ibuprofen.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Friday August 31 2018, @10:41PM (2 children)
Provably not everything is in the mind. As I said, even will all conscious awareness of pain removed, there is an anatomical reaction. Our reflexes bypass the brain entirely. By the time the neural signals reach the brain, the muscles are already contracting.
Reactions to drugs definitely vary. I find acetaminophen only somewhat effective. Aspirin works much better for me.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Saturday September 01 2018, @06:11PM (1 child)
No. You can't prove that "everything is in the mind" is false. That's one of the legitimate interpretations of quantum theory, though a rather useless one. But that's not what I was asserting anyway. What I was asserting is that all you can know is your mind. With the emphasis on know. Sensations that you experience do not directly map onto the external world. It's blatantly obvious at the 1-to-1 level, as you can't directly perceive radio waves, but it's even true for the subset of the universe that evokes sensations. See the rubber hand illusion. See theory of the perception of color. Et multitudinous cetera.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Sunday September 02 2018, @04:04AM
Well let's put it this way, even with conscious perception of pain fully blocked, you may still later become conscious of the shakes and others you choose to believe actually exist may observe inflammation and report it to you. You might even observe it for yourself.
If you don't believe that reality is real, you should ask why you are disagreeing with a figment of your own imagination here.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 30 2018, @06:25PM (2 children)
Morphine isn't addictive for redheads because their blood is so thin, making them bleed all the time time and sensitive to the slightest pain.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 30 2018, @08:20PM (1 child)
I'm a redhead (well, I was, now pretty gray)... had never heard this. One reference I found:
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/fact-or-fiction-do-redheads-feel-more-pain [pbs.org]
includes one point that matches my experience,
> They also found injections of the anesthetic lidocaine were less effective in redheads, a sign that they might require more of the drug.
>
> “If you give them local anesthesia, they don’t get as much pain relief as other people do.”
Had a broken toe that was not set properly, but it only became obvious weeks later when swelling went down. The osteo/doc (a big strong guy) attempted to re-break it so it could be fixed and his lidocaine shots did very little for the intense pain. The nurse gave me a rag to bite on...it was that kind of painful...
(Score: 2) by insanumingenium on Thursday August 30 2018, @10:55PM
I wouldn't call myself a true blue redhead, but I do have some red in there, and freckles feature prominently in my complexion. Novocain is up to a 45 minute long process requiring multiple attempts, to the point that the dentist has convinced me to do without for simple procedures. One experience with a local anesthetic was less extreme, but it did seem like a bigger ordeal that the doctor was expecting. And the other one I was dead numb immediately (and giddy to boot, though that might have been the sheer relief). Thankfully, I haven't had any call for other opiates. I also have family members with similar experiences, and it does seem anecdotally to be the fair ones that have the mixed bag.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 31 2018, @04:03AM
I had extensive, invasive abdominal surgery because of two bullets that lodged near my spine. I awoke the next day with a morphine drip that they let me have for several days. I loved being able to push a button and go to sleep. When they removed it, the nurse gave me a choice: vicodin or pain. I chose the pain, because I was afraid of addiction. My father was an alcoholic, and I drink and smoke more than I think I should.
I did not miss the morphine one bit.
The stomach-pumping tube kept me awake one night, because it irritated my nose, but, other than that, I never felt enough discomfort to complain.
I am no medical doctor (I have a PhD, which doesn't count), but I believe there must be some other factor to addiction to morphine beyond the morphine itself. I think what you were told about morphine is right: if physical pain is what the morphine is treating, and nothing beyond that, morphine seems to be okay.
(Score: 5, Informative) by bob_super on Thursday August 30 2018, @05:54PM (4 children)
"Can we patent this, and bury it ? What kind of monster would dare commercialize something so dangerous? Think of our children! Think of our jobs! We can't afford to lose the addiction cash cow!"
- way too many people
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 30 2018, @06:04PM
Don't worry. They'll put Martin Shkreli in charge of pricing and everything will be alright.
(Score: 4, Funny) by DannyB on Thursday August 30 2018, @06:45PM (1 child)
Make a drug that cures the addiction. You must continue to take it. If not, the addiction returns, but worse.
Make the price of this drug be free with the first hit, and gradually increase over time.
Every performance optimization is a grate wait lifted from my shoulders.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 30 2018, @10:12PM
So, kind of like marriage?
(Score: 2) by driverless on Friday August 31 2018, @03:48PM
It's not a case of patenting and burying it, their best option is to ignore it. They're making an absolute fortune legally selling re-engineered heroin to a nation of addicts, why would they bother with a non-addictive alternative? Where's the long-term profit in that?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 30 2018, @06:18PM
Is this a mental or physical addiction solution?
Because if they can remove all the painful trolls on this site I just might get mentally hooked!
(Score: 2) by nobu_the_bard on Thursday August 30 2018, @06:41PM (1 child)
I wonder if that's really possible. I guess it doesn't hurt to try to find such a thing.
I think anything that makes you numb could be addictive with the right mind set, though...
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Friday August 31 2018, @01:52AM
There's a real difference between addictive and habituating.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday August 30 2018, @06:54PM (1 child)
I've taken hydrocodone, for occasional use, for ten years. (minus a few months) I haven't developed an addiction. Not even a tolerance to the drug. I don't take it unless I need it. When I need it, it works -- because I don't take it when I don't need it. It's a tool. Something that improves my quality of life. My primary Dr. nor my arthritis specialist think I take too much.
When I started taking it, I was very clear that I didn't want to get addicted. I have a great life and don't want to screw it up with narcotics. (Someone on SN said before, that might be the reason I don't have a problem.)
Having a clear head is good when writing code. It may not be necessary when posting on SN. Since I don't drink alcohol, I can only wonder how that would affect coding or posting.
Every performance optimization is a grate wait lifted from my shoulders.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 30 2018, @10:15PM
It doesn't make your code or your posts any better, but it certainly makes doing both more enjoyable.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 30 2018, @07:52PM (6 children)
i read somewhere that in 'murika 79 million people take (prescription) pain killers regularly.
that is amazing!
it begs the question why the source of all this pain creation has not been found and eliminated yet?
i am getting the feeling, that living in 'murika requires one to endure pain; which ofc nobody does because one can armor oneself with pain-killing medication.
it seems pain-killing is demonized but in reality everybody accepts the environment of pain creation, treats it as a taboo and then happily goes about feeling better... 79 million times!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 30 2018, @09:10PM (2 children)
At least half of those are probably selling the 'script, which is a lucrative business. 30mg oxycontin at $0.50/mg (a reasonable price in most areas) - $1350 for 90 of them. That's the equivalent or better of a minimum wage job most places in the US.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 30 2018, @09:32PM (1 child)
ethanol, also know as the dog-molecule seems far cheaper to kill pain .. it also helps to kill the source of tooth-ache?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 30 2018, @10:12PM
The brain?
local observations concur
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 30 2018, @09:28PM (1 child)
Because not every source of pain can be 'fixed'. For some of us, we are stuck with it, all the time, and forever. Many of us just live with it, without painkillers as we wont 'go there'. In my case no fear of becoming addicted, but they do effect your personality and i dont need that.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 31 2018, @12:21AM
You're forgetting about term limits
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 31 2018, @12:57AM
> i am getting the feeling, that living in 'murika requires one to endure pain
My take is that some time back, big pharma (or someone) managed to convince the majority of Americans that pain was bad and you should never be in pain because now we have pills. They've even made movies about it. Here's one, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valley_of_the_Dolls_(film) [wikipedia.org]
Personally, I'm happier with some back ache pain than I am with taking pain medication...at least so far (it has not been acute or debilitating yet).
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 30 2018, @09:26PM
EVERYTHING is habit forming for personalities who are prone to it.
Even posting on soylent..