Drug addiction is do to neural systems that may be altered by different drugs. Similar drugs that can affect nicotine self admin can also affect opioid self-administration. One such drug is amitifadine. We have found a correlation between reduced remifentanil use both acute and chronic when being treated with amitifadine doses of 5, 10 and 20 mg/kg. Repeated treatment with 10 mg/kg of amitifadine reduced remifentanil self-administration chronically, even after cessation of treatment. There was no significant affect on feed motivated responding when being treated with the 10 mg/kg amitifadine dose. Amitifadine extended and maintained anti-nociceptive effects while not attenuating remifentanil-induced analgesia. These studies with amitifadine show promise as the drug can be used to reduce opioid self-administration in patients while not negating the pain killing properties that make opioids so desirable. Further studies are needed to determine the efficiency of amitifadine as a drug that combats opioid addiction.
(Levin, et al. 2019)