Silvia L. Cruz, PhD, is Professor of Pharmacobiology at Cinvestav in Mexico City. She has previously served as graduate program coordinator and Chair of the Department of Pharmacology at Cinvestav. She has worked as a full-time researcher and lecturer in the drug abuse field for the past 30 years and she is author of the Opioids chapter in the Springer book, Neuroscience in the 21sth Century.

Presents state-of-the-art guidelines on these complex and challenging pharmacologic agents

Provides a practical understanding of how opioids act and how to handle them safely and effectively

Discusses the critical topic of opioid use disorders and their treatment

Part I. Social aspects of opioid use.- Chapter 1: A brief history of opioids and the evolution of concepts associated with substance use disorders.- Chapter 2: The two sides of opioid use: Unmet needs of opioids for pain management and the role of opioids in substance use disorders.- Chapter 3: Opioid markets and special populations.- Chapter 4: Towards a new drug policy agreement.- Chapter 5: The opioid crises.- Chapter 6: Persons who misuse opioids.- Chapter 7: The need for structural interventions for persons who misuse opioids.- Part II. Pharmacological and medical aspects of opioid use.- Chapter 8: Opioid effects and classification.- Chapter 9: Opioid receptors and neuronal signal transduction.- Chapter 10: Opioids in Pain.- Chapter 11: Opioids in Palliative Care.- Chapter 12: Opioids and the immune system.- Chapter 13: Opioid dependence, tolerance, and withdrawal.- Chapter 14: Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) 1: Opioid substitution therapy.- Chapter 15: Medication-Assisted Treatment for Opioid Use Disorders 2. Detoxification.- Chapter 16: Synthetic Opioids as New Psychoactive Substances (NPS).