SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Fentanyl Has Been Shown To Cause Autism-Like Behavior in a Harvard-Funded Study:
One of the most often administered analgesics in hospitals is fentanyl, a mu-opioid receptor agonist that has the potential to permanently damage rats' behavior and sensorimotor abilities. It is unknown, however, if fentanyl usage contributes to the development of autism. Researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Shanghai 10th People's Hospital, and the University of Pennsylvania have shown in an animal study that fentanyl can cause alterations in young male and female mice that are comparable to behaviors seen in autism. The results have been published in the British Journal of Anaesthesia.
Other studies have demonstrated that N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor dysfunction contributes to autism. Autism is linked to variations in the Grin2a and Grin2b genes, which encode the GluN2A and GluN2B subunits of the N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor. Autism also affects the anterior cingulate cortex of the brain.
The current study found that fentanyl causes autistic-like behaviors in young male and female mice by activating the mu-opioid receptor in the anterior cingulate brain. Furthermore, these fentanyl-induced autistic-like behaviors seem to be partially driven by the reduction of Grin2b expression in the mice's anterior cingulate cortex induced by hypermethylation.
"Because the anterior cingulate cortex is a hub for mediating social information, we focused on the expression of Grin2b in that area," says Yuan Shen, MD, Ph.D., the paper's senior author and a professor of Psychiatry at Shanghai 10th People's Hospital. "We found fentanyl decreased expression of Grin2b in the anterior cingulate cortex. The overexpression of Grin2b prevents fentanyl-induced autism-like behavior in the mice. These findings suggest a potential mechanism to prevent or treat the autism-like behavior," says Shen.
The group conducted experiments using an open field test (in which a mouse can walk inside a box) and an elevated plus-maze (in which a mouse can walk on an elevated platform) to detect the anxiety and stereotyped behaviors of mice. Using a three-chamber social preference test (in which a mouse can interact with another mouse), they also assessed potential social deficits. "We used these tests because impaired social interaction, stereotyped behaviors, and anxiety are the key feature of autism-like behaviors in mice," says Zhihao Sheng, co-first author of the paper. Sheng is a graduate student at Shanghai 10th People's Hospital.
"However, the changes of mice in these behavioral tests do not equal autism in humans. These behavioral tests are only used to study the autism-like behaviors in mice because they can demonstrate certain features of behavior changes similar to the manifestation of autism," says Qidong Liu, Ph.D., co-first author, and an assistant professor at Shanghai 10th People's Hospital.
Journal Reference:
Zhihao Sheng, Qidong Liu, Chun Cheng, Mengzhu Li, et al., Fentanyl induces autism-like behaviours in mice by hypermethylation of the glutamate receptor gene Grin2b, Brit J Anaesth, 2022. DOI: 10.1016/j.bja.2022.04.027
(Score: 3, Funny) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday July 13 2022, @07:08PM
Keep the fentanyl away from the studies, and the studies will probably not develop autism.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by SomeGuy on Wednesday July 13 2022, @07:42PM
They stopped buying cell phones.
Expect Fentanyl to be discontinued immediately. :P
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 13 2022, @08:35PM (3 children)
For having it for nearly 11 months pre and post op i can tell you this medication saved my life.
When pain is 9/10 10/10 constantly crying and hurting like hell , that shot and patches saved me from suicide.
If mice have trouble with it . so be it .. no mice should take it.
Fentanyl is a life saving medication. Not for the long term. Short term and when there's pain that harms the patient.
Keep the outrage out of this. This medication saves lives. Mice .. lol Who cares ?
What next Antibiotics > ? What do you want to feel outraged about next ?
How many lives does your outrage will cost ? " Amputating an arm causes loss of a hand "
Get the hell out of here.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday July 13 2022, @09:51PM
It has a place in pain management.
It has no place in developing human brains (below age 20) even for pain management.
It has no place in "pill mills" or other conduits to abuse.
I seriously wonder if the potential for abuse wasn't there if the drug would have been developed in the first place? Market was probably too small to justify the costs. The answer to this is to reduce the overhead for drug development and approval, not to "free up alternate markets" to support the current outrageous costs imposed on anything new. Also, let's take some time out to do reasonable testing and approval of all the non-drug substances that are already out there being pumped into developing human brains.
Meanwhile, you don't need exposure to a drug of abuse to increase the risk of autistic brain development:
https://health.clevelandclinic.org/pregnancy-does-acetaminophen-heighten-risks-for-autism-adhd/ [clevelandclinic.org]
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2023/06/24/7408365/
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Thursday July 14 2022, @12:31AM (1 child)
Your post reads a little like a pill shill.
Why fentanyl, specifically? Your doctor didn't try anything else? You spent 11 months, ingesting fentanyl, and couldn't get by on any less potent drug? That must have been some horrific, unimaginable pain.
Before you start describing horrific pain, be aware that I am a burn survivor. I will understand if a vivisectionist flayed you to instruct his pupils, your pain probably exceeded that of some burn survivors. We'll just use 3rd degree burns as a baseline for 10/10 pain, and you can describe whatever it is that exceeds our baseline.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by mhajicek on Thursday July 14 2022, @05:26AM
Some patients don't respond to certain meds; it's good to have options.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 3, Interesting) by krishnoid on Wednesday July 13 2022, @10:46PM
I've posted this video [youtu.be] a bunch of times before, but the potential for il/legally abuse is so large it's not clear that it should be prescribed at all. The lollipop section of the video is interesting in that it's supposed to be prescribed for people in a *lot* of pain, for whom existing NSAIDs and classic opioids don't work.