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Heroin Addiction and Related Clinical Problems: 2024, 26, 33

Raha syrup attenuates the severity of physical and psychological dependence and voluntary morphine consumption in morphine-withdrawn rats receiving the opium tincture maintenance treatment

Hajar Yazdani, Mahdi Zahedi-Khorasani, Ali Ghanbari, Ali Khaleghian, and Hossein Miladi-Gorji

Digital Object Identifier:
https://doi.org/10.62401/2531-4122-2024-33

Summary: Background: Opioid addiction causes complex behavioural changes that eventually contribute to relapse, and needs the complementary therapy approach. Therefore, this study examined the effectiveness of Raha syrup as an equivalent and alternative treatment in reducing the severity of physical dependence, morphine-induced anxiety, depression and voluntary morphine consumption in morphine withdrawn rats receiving the opium tincture (OT) maintenance treatment. Methods: The rats were chronically treated with bi-daily doses (10 mg/kg) of morphine for 14 days. Rats received OT and Raha for 30 days during morphine withdrawal. Then, rats were tested for the severity of morphine dependence, the elevated plus-maze (EPM), sucrose preference test (SPT) and voluntary morphine consumption using a two-bottle choice (TBC) paradigm. Results: The results showed that Raha syrup decreased naloxone- precipitated opioid withdrawal signs in morphine-dependent rats receiving OT than the OT alone. Also, each one of the morphine-dependent rats receiving OT and the Raha syrup exhibited increased the sucrose preference and a lower morphine preference ratio than dependent control groups. Conclusions: We conclude that Raha syrup decreased the severity of physical dependence, anxiety/depressive-like behaviors and also the voluntary morphine consumption in morphine withdrawn rats. Also, the maintenance treatment with OT also attenuated the severity of opioid dependence, depression and craving. Therefore, Raha syrup may benefit in the treatment of addicts during OT maintenance treatment.

Keywords: Morphine; Opium tincture; Raha syrup; Psychological dependence; Morphine preference.