Insomnia Medication Belsomra Could Combat Opioid Addiction
A preclinical study found that suvorexant (Belsomra), an insomnia drug, could be a potential treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD) in rats. Suvorexant reduced prescription opioid intake and helped protect against relapse in rats modeling OUD. If the results translate to humans in clinical trials, the insomnia drug could offer a promising approach for the millions of people who have OUD. Suvorexant was designed to inhibit the activity of both the orexin-1 and orexin-2 brain-cell receptors, which are also involved in the process of drug dependency.