Could DNA Help Doctors Predict Opioid Addiction?

A new partnership between Bentley University and Gravity Diagnostics will allow researchers to begin exploring the genetic links between patients and opioid addiction. The research project aims to help better inform doctors on how likely a patient is to become addicted to opioids before ever prescribing opioid drugs. The new data could also be used to predict how patients addicted to opioids will respond to certain treatments. The opioid crisis remains one of the most critical issues facing U.S. healthcare, with more than 20 percent of patients who are prescribed opioids for chronic pain falling into opioid abuse, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The latest figures show that more than 115 people die every day from opioid overdose in the United States, and 80 percent of heroin users began by misusing prescription opioids. Chris Skipwith, assistant professor of Biotechnology at Bentley and the project’s principal investigator, said that identifying opioid addiction susceptibility could be the first step toward preventative diagnostic solutions that could actually curb opioid abuse. “There are many data-based approaches to the opioid crisis being employed by government, academia, private research institutions, and non-profit organizations,” Skipwith said. “As we begin to acquire more data about opioid use disorder, we can begin to develop a multifaceted approach to addressing it. Our research specifically has the potential to identify susceptibility to...
Source: MDDI - Category: Medical Devices Authors: Tags: IVD Source Type: news