Poison fights pain and addiction
BY KAREN BRIDSON

Heroin addicts could soon be kicking the habit with the help of the poisonous innards of puffer fish, if clinical trials of a new drug being conducted in Toronto support preliminary Chinese findings.

Tetrodin, a drug made from the toxin found in the fugu, may also be a breakthrough in pain management for cancer patients, providing 3,000 times the painkilling power of morphine while keeping patients awake and alert.
Dr. Edward Seller, a professor of pharmacology, psychiatry and medicine, is leading the trials at Ventana Clinical Research, based out of Women's College and Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre.

"From a research perspective, it's one of the more interesting drugs we've tested," says Sellers. He adds that preliminary studies in China have shown addicts' withdrawal symptoms can end within three to seven days. In heroin addicts, the drug blocks some actions of the nerves, he explains. "In opiate withdrawal, the nervous system is hyperactive, and this drug may decrease that."

Of the estimated 5,000 to 9,000 heroin addicts in Toronto, approximately 2,000 have been treated with methadone, the current drug of choice in the treatment of heroin addiction. But while it can be effective in treating heroin addiction, methadone itself is addictive, and it can take up to six months to be effective.
Tetrodin appears to be non-addictive and works much more quickly, according to Donna Shum, chief operations officer of International Wex Technologies, the Vancouver company sponsoring the trials.

Dennis Long, who runs a methadone clinic through Toronto's Breakaway Services, said he remains skeptical about the drug, but looks forward to the completion of the trials. "If it is what they say it is, that would be terrific," he says. "It would certainly help our ability to treat people."