Scientific Studies and Research on Kratom
This is our landing spot where we’re going to share new kratom research and what it means for consumers.
When and Where this Study was Published: Cureus on August 10, 2023. This Springer Nature journal is based in San Francisco and leverages the power of an online, crowdsourced community platform to share and promote published medical knowledge around the world.
What This Research is About: This pilot study looked at 12 individuals with kratom addiction and 13 healthy men. Both MRIs and SPECT-CT were conducted on the participants to determine if differences could be detected in the striatal dopamine transporter levels.
Key Takeaways: Differences were detected, including differences that are similar to those observed in opiate addicted individuals. That said, we were unable to readily determine from the report if the nature of the differences in striatal dopamine transporter levels were similar between kratom and true opiates, or the actual effect size was also similar. It’s also important to note that the study only looked at individual with serious signs of kratom addiction, which is relatively rare among kratom users at large.
It’s also worth reminding our readers that this was a pilot study with little statistical significance or power.