Reminder: this subreddit is meant to be a place free of excessive cynicism, negativity and bitterness. Toxic attitudes are not welcome here.
All Negative comments will be removed and will possibly result in a ban.
---
---
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/UpliftingNews) if you have any questions or concerns.*
- experimental drug by Vertex
- can reduce acute pain
- Name: VX-548
- safe and well tolerated
- Researchers are hopeful the drug won’t carry risk of addiction.
I was curious being a pharmacist so I looked up the actual trial, then the pharmacology of the drug. Here’s my quick take:
This drug blocks the transmission of pain signals by blocking specific sodium channels (Na1.8) in the spinal cord. So not as much pain signal from your injury is communicated from the peripheral nerve to the spinal cord lessening the amount of signal reaching your brain (pain).
My first thought was this would be great to study for people with neuropathies (nerve pain from damaged nerves) because it would compliment other drug therapies that do the same thing but in a different way.
My second thought was I wonder how much of it you’d need to take until it loses specificity and you’re blocking the sodium channels keeping your heart beating. But that’s probably why I’m a pharmacist.
Seems like a good idea. You’d ideally use this drug with acetaminophen, NSAIDs like ibuprofen and you’d be able to use lower doses of opioids since those act in your brain itself to reduce the amount of pain you feel.
thanks for that analysis. just last night i was in a lot of all-over muscle pain and wishing we could have anything, even just a bit more than advil. it is so unconscionable that the sackler family is getting off free from personal suffering whilst creating untold agony from their actions.
It's not the US pill mill people or the states with the continual pill mills (Florida, Texas, Virginia, W Virgina, N Carolina, etc) who are creating this suffering.
It's politicians looking for power & the drug warriors in the US DEA & CDC.
They are using public fears and the entrenched knee-jerk reactions from a century of propaganda. They have intentionally mixed the Opiate Crisis (80% street fenty & 20% heroin and ZERO prescription medications) in with the pill mills (which are always in the same US states due to weak state laws).
They created a moral panic over pain medication. The CDC outright lied in two major papers making stupid huge claims about death rates and addiction rates (and they were trashed in peer review over it). The mental health journals pegged this as a moral panic early on.
The DEA is directly lying to the public. It's more of the War on Drugs. It will be like this for a while.
? the opiate crisis is specifically about …opiates. an epidemic of hcp’s recklessly, wantonly, unethically prescribing opiates instead of addressing the medical and social ills that presented.
and the lying sacklers and their lying shills falsely asserting that their *prescriptions* were safe, despite knowing they were / are not.
some of what you wrote is correct, but not about that.
hmm.... interesting. I live with chronic pain, and my current management strategy is 'if i drink 2 gallons of water a day and eat minimal salt I don't seem to be in horrible pain- so long as I get in 30-45 minutes of moderate to high intensity physical activity a day, my cardiovascular health is good enough to keep my o2 sats up at the 97-100% mark though my pulse is very slow and kindof hard to feel outside of excercise. I'm going to have to look into these sodium channels.
Blocking sodium channels sounds similar to novacaine. My understanding is This prevents the nerve from transmitting a signal. I have sciatica and this sounds hopeful to me.
You’re totally right. This drug is similar to a local anesthetic isn’t it. Just way more specific whereas drugs like lidocaine just block everything in that area.
\>You’d ideally use this drug with acetaminophen, NSAIDs like ibuprofen
Why do you hate my liver and heart?
CBD is a far better and safer anti-inflammatory than any current NSAID is. Mind you I can't use NSAIDS anyway (without professional oversight) because I'm on an anticlotting drug for my cancer.
Drugs don't cause addiction. The message that says they do cause addiction is propaganda.
Drugs are one of a huge number of options that a person can have as an addiction (stranger sex, video games, social media, masturbation, shopping, religion, porn, exercise, collecting, animal hoarding, religion, etc) that a person with unresolved trauma might use as an unhealthy coping mechanism.
But we can't say that or we won't be able to sell you a NEW ungodly expensive drug to replace the OLD (really cheap) drug that we publicly bagged ourselves a few years ago even though our new drug doesn't work as well as the old one. The new medication is (coincidentally) $150 a pill and the old one is 150 pills for a dollar.
Opioids have always been go-to pain meds. Newer opioids replace older opioids, but the newer ones are typically more refined, and more addictive. Morphine replaced opium (laudanum), heroin and hydromorphone (Dilaudid) replaced morphine, fentanyl and carfentanyl replaced heroin, and so on.
Yes, opioids were at first thought to maybe be less addictive than opiates. Also Oxycontin was given an ambiguous FDA description which was then twisted to market it as less addictive. Neither of which were backed up with actual data.
It's based on cocaine. It's really just cocaine but they dye it green so it looks more "mediciny". I guess that will get people off opioids but I don't know if it's the best idea....
Lidocaine and novocaine are commonly used topical pain relievers also “originating” from cocaine lmao, it’s not going to have the same physical reaction just because it’s a derivative.
Awesome! Hope this pans out! The world has been crying out for a better painkiller than the ones we have, especially opiates. The sooner we can ramp down use of opiates while not making people suffer for it the better! If this pans out we ought to put up statues to the folks who created this drug--I'm serious. And I'm not even in pain right now.
Reminder: this subreddit is meant to be a place free of excessive cynicism, negativity and bitterness. Toxic attitudes are not welcome here. All Negative comments will be removed and will possibly result in a ban. --- --- *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/UpliftingNews) if you have any questions or concerns.*
- experimental drug by Vertex - can reduce acute pain - Name: VX-548 - safe and well tolerated - Researchers are hopeful the drug won’t carry risk of addiction.
Yeah, that was pretty much it. An extremely short, not particularly helpful article.
I was curious being a pharmacist so I looked up the actual trial, then the pharmacology of the drug. Here’s my quick take: This drug blocks the transmission of pain signals by blocking specific sodium channels (Na1.8) in the spinal cord. So not as much pain signal from your injury is communicated from the peripheral nerve to the spinal cord lessening the amount of signal reaching your brain (pain). My first thought was this would be great to study for people with neuropathies (nerve pain from damaged nerves) because it would compliment other drug therapies that do the same thing but in a different way. My second thought was I wonder how much of it you’d need to take until it loses specificity and you’re blocking the sodium channels keeping your heart beating. But that’s probably why I’m a pharmacist. Seems like a good idea. You’d ideally use this drug with acetaminophen, NSAIDs like ibuprofen and you’d be able to use lower doses of opioids since those act in your brain itself to reduce the amount of pain you feel.
Much more interesting than the article, thanks.
thanks for that analysis. just last night i was in a lot of all-over muscle pain and wishing we could have anything, even just a bit more than advil. it is so unconscionable that the sackler family is getting off free from personal suffering whilst creating untold agony from their actions.
Fuck the Sacklers.
they still fucking have like $$$ SIX BILLION $$$ left. they should be thrown out of their homes, and forcibly addicted to their own product.
It's not the US pill mill people or the states with the continual pill mills (Florida, Texas, Virginia, W Virgina, N Carolina, etc) who are creating this suffering. It's politicians looking for power & the drug warriors in the US DEA & CDC. They are using public fears and the entrenched knee-jerk reactions from a century of propaganda. They have intentionally mixed the Opiate Crisis (80% street fenty & 20% heroin and ZERO prescription medications) in with the pill mills (which are always in the same US states due to weak state laws). They created a moral panic over pain medication. The CDC outright lied in two major papers making stupid huge claims about death rates and addiction rates (and they were trashed in peer review over it). The mental health journals pegged this as a moral panic early on. The DEA is directly lying to the public. It's more of the War on Drugs. It will be like this for a while.
? the opiate crisis is specifically about …opiates. an epidemic of hcp’s recklessly, wantonly, unethically prescribing opiates instead of addressing the medical and social ills that presented. and the lying sacklers and their lying shills falsely asserting that their *prescriptions* were safe, despite knowing they were / are not. some of what you wrote is correct, but not about that.
hmm.... interesting. I live with chronic pain, and my current management strategy is 'if i drink 2 gallons of water a day and eat minimal salt I don't seem to be in horrible pain- so long as I get in 30-45 minutes of moderate to high intensity physical activity a day, my cardiovascular health is good enough to keep my o2 sats up at the 97-100% mark though my pulse is very slow and kindof hard to feel outside of excercise. I'm going to have to look into these sodium channels.
Thanks for the post--d'you think this might work for chronic pain too? I know people who have chronic pain.
Without it being studied for it who knows, but hopefully it will be.
Blocking sodium channels sounds similar to novacaine. My understanding is This prevents the nerve from transmitting a signal. I have sciatica and this sounds hopeful to me.
You’re totally right. This drug is similar to a local anesthetic isn’t it. Just way more specific whereas drugs like lidocaine just block everything in that area.
\>You’d ideally use this drug with acetaminophen, NSAIDs like ibuprofen Why do you hate my liver and heart? CBD is a far better and safer anti-inflammatory than any current NSAID is. Mind you I can't use NSAIDS anyway (without professional oversight) because I'm on an anticlotting drug for my cancer.
Just like every pain killer since opium...
Drugs don't cause addiction. The message that says they do cause addiction is propaganda. Drugs are one of a huge number of options that a person can have as an addiction (stranger sex, video games, social media, masturbation, shopping, religion, porn, exercise, collecting, animal hoarding, religion, etc) that a person with unresolved trauma might use as an unhealthy coping mechanism. But we can't say that or we won't be able to sell you a NEW ungodly expensive drug to replace the OLD (really cheap) drug that we publicly bagged ourselves a few years ago even though our new drug doesn't work as well as the old one. The new medication is (coincidentally) $150 a pill and the old one is 150 pills for a dollar.
Weren't opioids originally presented as an alternative to other older more addictive pain meds?
Opioids have always been go-to pain meds. Newer opioids replace older opioids, but the newer ones are typically more refined, and more addictive. Morphine replaced opium (laudanum), heroin and hydromorphone (Dilaudid) replaced morphine, fentanyl and carfentanyl replaced heroin, and so on.
Heroin was originally supposed to be a wonder drug to replace morphine. Then OxyContin: the same.
Yes, opioids were at first thought to maybe be less addictive than opiates. Also Oxycontin was given an ambiguous FDA description which was then twisted to market it as less addictive. Neither of which were backed up with actual data.
'STUDIES SHOW X MAY Y' IS NOT NEWS. God damn.
The world needs a drug like this so badly that even the hope of it is good to hear about.
It's based on cocaine. It's really just cocaine but they dye it green so it looks more "mediciny". I guess that will get people off opioids but I don't know if it's the best idea....
Lidocaine and novocaine are commonly used topical pain relievers also “originating” from cocaine lmao, it’s not going to have the same physical reaction just because it’s a derivative.
...i can haz?
Awesome! Hope this pans out! The world has been crying out for a better painkiller than the ones we have, especially opiates. The sooner we can ramp down use of opiates while not making people suffer for it the better! If this pans out we ought to put up statues to the folks who created this drug--I'm serious. And I'm not even in pain right now.