A new type of non-addictive opioid accelerates recovery time from pain compared to morphine without increasing pain sensitivity, according to a new study.

A new type of opioid developed by researchers at Tulane University and the Southeast Louisiana Veterans Health Care System doesn’t have this side effect and accelerates recovery time from pain compared to morphine, according to a new study published in the Journal of Neuroinflammation.

Previous pre-clinical studies at Tulane have shown that the drug is as strong as morphine but isn’t addictive and causes fewer side effects.

«A drug that prevents the transition from acute to chronic relapsing pain would represent a true breakthrough in drug development for pain management,» said senior study author James Zadina, professor of medicine, pharmacology and neuroscience at Tulane University School of Medicine and director of the neuroscience laboratory at the VA. «Not only have the mechanisms behind the shift from acute to chronic pain been elusive, but efforts to thwart this transition have had little success.»

Scientists tested a novel opioid called ZH853 using rat models of inflammatory pain and pain after surgery. The drug is an engineered variant of the neurochemical endomorphin, which is found naturally in the body.

Researchers treated rats with ZH853, morphine or a placebo. Rats treated with morphine for a few days recovered more slowly than those given a placebo. This was true whether the morphine was given before or after the injury, indicating that prior use — or abuse — of opioids could aggravate subsequent recovery from injury.

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