Conditions: Inflammation
Keywords: Inflammation, opioids, immune system
Allocation: RANDOMIZED | Intervention model: PARALLEL
Enrollment: 20
Healthy volunteers: yes

Brief summary:
We aim to examine the extent to which inflammation is affected by acute and chronic opioid exposure.

Detailed description:
We are interested in learning how the immune system and the inflammation process is effected by acute and chronic opioid exposure. Preliminary evidence in animal models show that acute opioid exposure leads to decreased inflammatory responses, while chronic opioid exposure causes increased inflammatory responses, as measured by local cytokine release at the site of injury. Translating these findings to humans will lead to important new mechanistic knowledge that may ultimately improve our ability to treat pain.

Arms:
arm 1: 15mg sustained release morphine sulfate, with a maximum dose of 120mg. Patients will be titrated up to a maximum dose of 8 pills a day for one month. arm 2: 15mg sustained release morphine sulfate, with a maximum dose of 120mg. Patients will be titrated up to a maximum dose of 8 pills a day for one month.

Interventions: intervention 1: Morphine Sulfate
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: 15mg sustained release morphine sulfate, with a maximum dose of 120mg. Patients will be titrated up to a maximum dose of 8 pills a day for one month.

Protocol document: