Less morphine recall if preceded by twice a week Vitamin D (400 IU per kg in rats, human weights 80 kg)

Created August 2023

Attenuation of morphine conditioned place preference and reinstatement by vitamin D

Behav Pharmacol. 2023 Aug 15. doi: 10.1097/FBP.0000000000000747

Mahdieh Akbari 1, Houman Parsaei 2, Katayoun Sedaghat 1, Fatemeh Mousavi 1

  • 1 Research Center of Physiology, Semnan University of Medical Sciences, Semnan and.

  • 2 Department of Anatomy, School of Medicine, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.

    Opioid action in the brain involves the dopamine-reward system as well as non-dopamine pathways. Since vitamin D also modulates the brain's dopamine system, the question of this study was how vitamin D might affect the opioid influences on the reward system. Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate the possible effect of vitamin D on the conditioned place preference (CPP) induced by morphine , as a valuable model of assessment of the reinforcing properties of opioids by associating the context to the rewarding properties of the addictive drugs. Male Wistar rats were randomly divided into two main groups that either received saline ( morphine vehicle) or morphine (5 mg/kg, intraperitoneally) for CPP. Each of the main groups was divided into three vitamin D treatment subgroups: vitamin D vehicle and vitamin D (5 and 10 μg/kg, intraperitoneally). Vitamin D injections were started 1 week ahead of the experiment (two injections) or immediately after post-conditioning and in both cases, it was continued twice weekly throughout the CPP. Administration of vitamin D (10 μg/kg) before conditioning in CPP markedly attenuated morphine expression in the post-conditioning test. Receiving vitamin D (5 or 10 μg/kg) before or after conditioning significantly attenuated morphine reinstatement. Administration of vitamin D after opioid conditioning facilitated morphine memory extinction and attenuated morphine reinstatement. Vitamin D is probably a valuable addition to be considered as a part of the treatment for prevention or minimizing the dependency or relapse to opioids .

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16+ VitaminDWiki pages have MORPHINE or OPIOIDS or OPIATE or ADDICTION in the title

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40,500 hits for (morphine OR opioids OR opiates OR addiction) "vitamin D" in Google Scholar Dec 2023

  • The effect of vitamin D on morphine preference in rats: Possible biochemical and DRD2–GDNF signaling - Jan 2023 https://doi.org/10.1002/brb3.2877 FREE PDF

  • Putative role of vitamin D in the mechanism of alcoholism and other addictions – a hypothesis - Feb 2021 https://doi.org/10.1017/neu.2020.41 FREE PDF

    • 5 studies, VDR and other genes can restrict Vitamin D from getting to brain cells

  • Vitamin D and Its Potential Interplay With Pain Signaling Pathways - May 2020 https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2020.00820 FREE PDF

  • Does vitamin D supplementation decrease opioid use in patients with cancer? - Feb 2022. https://doi.org/10.1097/EBP.0000000000001536

  • ‘Palliative-D’—Vitamin D Supplementation to Palliative Cancer Patients: A Double Blind, Randomized Placebo-Controlled Multicenter Trial - July 2021 https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers13153707 FREE PDF

VitaminDWiki – Pain - chronic category has:

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Wikipedia description of Conditioned place preference

"Conditioned place preference (CPP) is a form of Pavlovian conditioning used to measure the motivational effects of objects or experiences. This motivation comes from the pleasurable aspect of the experience, so that the brain can be reminded of the context that surrounded the "encounter". By measuring the amount of time an animal spends in an area that has been associated with a stimulus, researchers can infer the animal's liking for the stimulus."

Tags: Chronic Pain Intervention Intervention - non daily