Papers of the Week

Mitragyna speciosa, more commonly known as kratom, is a plant that contains opioidergic alkaloids, but is unregulated in most countries. Kratom is used in the self-medication of chronic pain and to reduce illicit and prescription opioid dependence. Kratom may be less dangerous than typical opioids because of the stronger preference of kratom alkaloids to induce receptor interaction with G proteins over beta-arrestin proteins. We hypothesized that kratom (alkaloids) can also reduce alcohol intake.