heroin and carfentanil

Topics: Drug Overdose; Fentanyl; Heroin; Humans; Nursing Diagnosis; Opioid-Related Disorders; United States

Carfentanil, as a fentanyl analogue, is a potent synthetic opioid. It has been controlled in many countries, and its emergence has been highlighted by many recent reports. However, although discriminative stimulus effects of carfentanil in rats had been reported, its abuse potential has not been fully evaluated. In this study, we evaluated the abuse potential of carfentanil via the tests of conditioned place preference (CPP), drug self-administration and naloxone-precipitated opioid withdrawal assay, compared with fentanyl and heroin. Carfentanil exhibited significant place preference at a minimum dose of 1 μg/kg in mice, whereas fentanyl and heroin induced significant place preference at the minimum doses of 100 μg/kg and 1000 μg/kg, respectively. In the drug-substitution test in heroin self-administered rats (50 μg/kg/infusion), carfentanil and fentanyl acquired significant self-administrations above saline levels from 0.05-0.1 and 0.1-10.0 μg/kg/infusion, respectively. Carfentanil induced the maximum number of infusions at 0.1 μg/kg, whereas fentanyl and heroin at 1 and 25 μg/kg, respectively. In short, carfentanil showed the highest potency to induce CPP and self-administration. Furthermore, repeated treatment with escalating doses of carfentanil, fentanyl or heroin induced typical withdrawal symptoms in mice, including a greater number of jumping and weight loss than saline group. This indicated that carfentanil could produce physical dependence similar to fentanyl and heroin. Taken together, the present study demonstrated the higher abuse potential of carfentanil compared with fentanyl and heroin. The rank order of abuse potential for these compounds is carfentanil > fentanyl > heroin.

Topics: Analgesics, Opioid; Animals; Fentanyl; Heroin; Mice; Naloxone; Rats; Substance Withdrawal Syndrome

A significant number of deaths caused by opioids involve fentanyl and/or one of its very potent analogs (e.g., carfentanil). Some clinical reports suggest larger doses of opioid receptor antagonists may be required to reverse the effects of carfentanil compared with other opioid receptor agonists, although this has not been examined extensively in vivo. The current study compared the discriminative stimulus effects of fentanyl, carfentanil, and heroin, and their antagonism by naltrexone.. Eight male Sprague-Dawley rats were trained to discriminate 10.0 μg/kg fentanyl from saline while responding under a fixed-ratio 10 schedule of food presentation. Dose-effect curves were determined for the opioid receptor agonists fentanyl (1.0-32.0 μg/kg), carfentanil (0.1-3.2 μg/kg), and heroin (10.0-320.0 μg/kg), then redetermined following a 15-minute pretreatment with 0.1 mg/kg naltrexone.. Fentanyl, carfentanil, and heroin dose-dependently increased responding on the fentanyl-associated lever and decreased the rate of lever pressing. Carfentanil and heroin were approximately 10-fold more and less potent, respectively, than fentanyl at eliciting >80 % responding on the fentanyl-associated lever. Pretreatment with 0.1 mg/kg naltrexone resulted in a significant rightward shift in the fentanyl and heroin but not carfentanil dose-effect curves.. Differences in the effectiveness of naltrexone to attenuate the discriminative stimulus effects of carfentanil, compared with fentanyl and heroin, suggest that there may be differences in how carfentanil exerts its discriminative stimulus effects compared with other opioids. Further evaluation is needed of potential pharmacological and behavioral differences between carfentanil and other opioids, particularly in the context of toxicity.

Topics: Analgesics, Opioid; Animals; Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; Fentanyl; Heroin; Male; Naltrexone; Narcotic Antagonists; Rats; Rats, Sprague-Dawley; Receptors, Opioid, mu

The US has seen a rapid increase in synthetic opioid-related overdose deaths. We investigate Ohio, a state with one of the highest overdose death rates in 2017 and substantial numbers of deaths related to fentanyl, carfentanil, and other fentanyl analogs, to provide detailed evidence about the relationship between changes in the illicit drug market and overdose deaths.. We investigate the illicit drug market using Ohio's Bureau of Criminal Investigation's (BCI) crime lab data from 2009 to 2018 that shows the content of drugs seized by law enforcement. We use Poisson regression analysis to estimate the relationship between monthly crime lab data and monthly unintentional drug overdose death data at the county level.. During this time period there has been a rapid change in the composition of drugs analyzed by the BCI labs, with a rapid fall in heroin observations, simultaneous rise in synthetic opioids, and an increase in the number of different fentanyl analogs. We find that the increased presence of fentanyl, carfentanil, and other fentanyl analogs have a strong correlation with an increase in overdose deaths. The types of opioids most associated with deaths varies by the population size of the county.. Crime lab data has the potential to be used as an early warning system to alert persons who inject drugs, harm reduction services, first responders, and law enforcement about changes in the illicit opioid risk environment.

Topics: Analgesics, Opioid; Crime; Drug Overdose; Female; Fentanyl; Forensic Medicine; Heroin; Humans; Illicit Drugs; Law Enforcement; Male; Ohio; Opiate Overdose

Topics: Fentanyl; Heroin; Humans; Law Enforcement; Ohio; Seizures

Topics: Adult; Analgesics, Opioid; Cocaine; Drug Overdose; Drug Trafficking; Female; Fentanyl; Heroin; Humans; Illicit Drugs; Male; Methamphetamine; Middle Aged; Ohio; Opioid-Related Disorders

Topics: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S.; China; Crime; Drug Overdose; Federal Government; Female; Fentanyl; Heroin; Humans; Illicit Drugs; Male; Ohio; Opiate Alkaloids; Opioid-Related Disorders; United States