Differences in opioid prescribing in low back pain patients with and without depression: a cross-sectional study of a national sample from the United States.

Introduction: Low back pain (LBP) is among the leading indications for the prescription of opioid analgesics in clinical practice. There is increasing evidence suggesting that these agents may have diminished efficacy in the treatment of LBP.

Objectives: We evaluated the relationship between depression, the probability of receiving an opioid prescription, and the amount of morphine equivalent amounts prescribed per year among patients with LBP using nationwide data.

Loss of feedback inhibition via D2 autoreceptors enhances acquisition of cocaine taking and reactivity to drug-paired cues.

A prominent aspect of drug addiction is the ability of drug-associated cues to elicit craving and facilitate relapse. Understanding the factors that regulate cue reactivity will be vital for improving treatment of addictive disorders. Low availability of dopamine (DA) D2 receptors (D2Rs) in the striatum is associated with high cocaine intake and compulsive use.

Demonstrated brain insulin resistance in Alzheimer's disease patients is associated with IGF-1 resistance, IRS-1 dysregulation, and cognitive decline.

While a potential causal factor in Alzheimer's disease (AD), brain insulin resistance has not been demonstrated directly in that disorder. We provide such a demonstration here by showing that the hippocampal formation (HF) and, to a lesser degree, the cerebellar cortex in AD cases without diabetes exhibit markedly reduced responses to insulin signaling in the IR→IRS-1→PI3K signaling pathway with greatly reduced responses to IGF-1 in the IGF-1R→IRS-2→PI3K signaling pathway. Reduced insulin responses were maximal at the level of IRS-1 and were consistently associated with basal elevations in IRS-1 phosphorylated at serine 616 (IRS-1 pS⁶¹⁶) and IRS-1 pS⁶³⁶/⁶³⁹.