Opioid-induced hyperalgesia

Abstract

Recently it became clear that opioids, besides their role in analgesia, mayalso induce hyperalgesia. Something what in the past was called opioidneurotoxicity. Hyperalgesia, or hypersensitivity to pain stimuli may berelated to well known problems of tolerance to opioids. Hyperalgesia is a major clinical problem and its recognition and treatment are of paramountimportance. It is believed that uncoupling of opioid receptors from the Gi/Go proteins and coupling them to Gs protein changes dramatically activity of opioid receptors. In this article the different aspects of diagnosis andtreatment of hyperalgesia are discussed. Copyright © 2006 Via Medica.