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Passiflora incarnata makes breaking addiction to opiates more bearable
If addicted opiate users are undergoing withdrawal treatment, supplementation with an extract of Passiflora incarnata reduces the symptoms of withdrawal.
Study
Psychiatrists at Tehran University of Medical Sciences in Iran published a small human trial in 2001 in which they tried to help 65 opiate users overcome their addiction.
They gave all subjects clonidine for 2 weeks to reduce the side effects of withdrawal. Some of them also used 60 drops of a liquid supplement containing Passiflora incarnata every day. The researchers do not provide details about the product.
Above you can see which side effects the researchers monitored and how they calculated their scores.
Results
The subjects who received Passiflora incarnata in addition to clonidine suffered as much from the physical effects of withdrawal as the subjects who only took clonidine. However, supplementation did reduce the mental effects of withdrawal - and consequently the overall withdrawal scores.
In the figure below you can see that from day 4 onwards, administration of Passiflora incarnata caused the total number of symptoms to decrease statistically significantly compared to day 1. On day 14, the difference in total symptoms between both groups was also statistically significant.
Conclusion
Supplementation with Passiflora incarnata did not reduce physical withdrawal symptoms, but did reduce mental withdrawal symptoms.
"These results suggested that passiflora extract may be an effective adjuvant agent in the management of opiate withdrawal", write the researchers. "However, a larger study to confirm our results is warranted."
Source:
J Clin Pharm Ther. 2001 Oct;26(5):369-73.
More:
Break an addiction? Supplementation with 100 milligrams of DHEA per day increases your chance of success 07.01.2021
Strength training increases success of attempts to quit smoking 02.06.2014
Archives:
Passiflora incarnata
Psychology
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