Role of the brain mesolimbic pathway in pain-induced anhedonia and opioid seeking.

Dr. Jose Moron-Concepcion is the Henry E. Mallinckrodt Professor of Anesthesiology and a Professor of Psychiatry and Neuroscience at Washington University in St. Louis.

Pain is a complex phenomenon composed of sensory and emotional-affective components. As pain persists, the presence of negative affective states can lead to the development of negative emotional states and substance use disorders. In this panel we will discuss recent findings investigating pain-induced alterations in neurocircuits underlying allodynia/hyperalgesia, negative affective states, and drug and substance seeking/consumption. Dr. Jose Moron-Concepcion will show new data reflecting on neural mechanisms underlying sex-specific effects of pain on opioid use. Novel data from an inflammatory pain model in rats will demonstrate how pain alters opioid reward signaling in a sex-specific and time-dependent manner and reveal novel mechanisms underlying opioid misuse liability. In addition, he will show that ovarian hormones protect females from pain-induced effects fentanyl use, but the effects are not attributable to estradiol per se. Instead, they demonstrate the therapeutic potential of estradiol treatment in males and its ability to reverse the effects of pain on and fentanyl use. These findings are the first to implicate a role for gonadal hormones in pain-facilitated opioid use and provide novel therapeutic targets that may contribute to pain-related risk for opioid abuse.

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Hosted by Dr. Lauren Dobbs

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