From Abstract:
“Opiates induce electrical silencing of POMC neurons resulting in hyperphagic obesity and dysmetabolic syndrome, mimicking senescence. Hence POMC neuronal pathophysiology becomes amplified organism-wide in a feed-forward loop.
Together these factors suggest that we are on the very threshold of new insights which have the potential to overhaul both our conceptual understandings and our clinical treatments. The purpose of this review is to bring together findings from widely disparate areas and to elucidate their relevance and overlap with research on the effects of long-term opiate dependence. Whilst opiate dependence is the primary focus these observations likely also pertain to other chemical dependencies.”
