Naltrexone also Treats Crohn's Disease
A study by Penn State College of Medicine finds that naltrexone may be beneficial to people with Crohn's disease. A low dose of this drug is often used to bring relief to victims of alcohol and drug addiction.
Crohn’s disease is a chronic inflammatory disorder of the intestine that affects an estimated 500,000 Americans. The study results were released online this week in an early edition of the American Journal of Gastroenterology.
A team of researchers led by gastroenterologist Jill P. Smith, M.D., and Ian S. Zagon, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of neural and behavioral sciences, at the College of Medicine and Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, received NIH funding last summer to initiate a phase 2 trial of low-dose naltrexone and Crohn's.
In the pilot study, patients with diagnosed Crohn's disease were treated with a low dose of naltrexone and monitored for improvement of symptoms for 12 weeks. Quality of life surveys were given every four weeks for 16 weeks. The results, published this week, show that 89 percent of participants showed an improvement with therapy, while 67 percent achieved remission of symptoms. The only side effect to treatment was sleep disturbance in some patients.
Typical treatment for Crohn's involves using steroids or corticosteroids, which suppress the immune system and can have other toxic side effects. Treatment is often time-intensive and expensive, as well.
'This is a novel approach to treating a common disease, and it's simple, it's safe, and it costs far less than current standards of treatment,' Smith said. 'We don't yet know the exact mechanisms involved in how it works, but we're working on that, as well.'
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Narcan: FDA approved since 1984
Narcan, also called Naltrexone, has been FDA approved since 1984 for reversal of narcotics overdose. It reverses the sedating effect of opiates by binding to the opioid receptors in the brain. Narcan is available in the hospital operating room where anesthesiologists use it to wake up the patient after the operation. It was a surprise for me to find out that this commonly used drug has other very important uses at a much lower dosage as an oral capsule. Medical scientists have been carefully studying its effect on the immune system, and its clinical benefits for a host of disease states for the past 20 years.
Low Dose Naltrexone, (LDN), How Does it Work?
The beneficial effect of low dose naltrexone, LDN, was discovered by Bernard Bihari, MD, a physician in New York City who found that a small dose (3 mg) of naltrexone taken as a capsule at bedtime blocks the opiate receptors in the brain for a few hours during sleep, which then stimulates the brain to increase production of endorphins over the next 24 hours. These endorphins then stimulate the immune system. Although Bihari did much of the early clinical work, Zagon did much of the groundwork with animal research studies at Pennsylvania State University.
LDN Effective for Crohn's Disease
A recent publication in the Jan 2007 Journal of Gasteroenterology on the use of LDN in Crohn's Disease, was the first breakthrough publication to appear entitled,
Low-Dose Naltrexone Therapy Improves Active Crohn's Disease by Jill Smith MD.
For a more complete review with links to references, see my newsletter:
Low Dose Naltrexone LDN by Jeffrey Dach MD
Jeffrey Dach MD
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