Evaluation of the Effects of Artemisia austriaca on Morphine Withdrawal Syndrome in Rats

Background: opioidal analgesics are one of the most important drugs that have beenwidely used in attenuating moderate to severe pain. unfortunately, the problems oflong term use of opiods are tolerance, dependence, and ultimately addiction tomentioned drugs. glial cells (microglia and astrocyte) and pro-inflammatory cytokinesare important factors in morphine tolerance and withdrawal symptoms. it has beendemonstrated that artemisia austriaca extract has antinociceptive and antiinflammatoryproperties. in this study the effect of total methanolic extract of aerialparts of artemisia austrica on withdrawal syndrome of morphine in male rats has beenevaluated. methods: adult male wistar rats were rendered morphine-dependent byinjection of additive doses of morphine subcutaneously twice daily for 9 days. todetermine the effect of artemisia austriaca extract on morphine withdrawal syndrome,12 hours after the last injection of morphine, different doses of the methanolic extractof artemisia austriaca (100, 200, 400 mg/kg, i.p.) dissolved in (%25dmso in saline),was injected and after 30 minutes, naloxone (4 mg/kg, i.p.) was injected andwithdrawal signs were recorded for 45 minutes. results: the results showed thatmethanolic extract of artemisia austriaca could reduce the morphine withdrawalsymptoms in a dose-dependent manner. conclution: the results of the present studyindicate that artemisia austriaca has beneficial effects in reducing withdrawalsyndrome of morphine. the underlying mechanisms of this effect may consist ofreduction of inflammatory response and attenuating of pro-inflammatory cytokinesactivation by its alkaloids conten