| Posted on Oct. 3, 2023, by Lawrence Tabak, D.D.S., Ph.D Chronic pain is an often-debilitating health condition and serious public health concern, affecting more than 50 million Americans.The opioid and overdose crisis, which stems from inadequate pain treatment, continues to have a devastating impact on families and communities across the country. To combat both challenges, we urgently need new ways to treat acute and chronic pain effectively without the many downsides of opioids. While there are already multiple classes of non-opioid pain medications and other approaches to manage pain, unfortunately none have proved as effective as opioids when it comes to pain relief. So, Im encouraged to see that an NIH-funded team now has preclinical evidence of a promising alternative target for pain-relieving medicines in the brain. | 