What Are Opioid Receptors?

An opioid receptor is just like many of the other receptors that we have in our body. When they're activated by opioids, they help to boost the activity of inhibitory into neurons. So this is why opioids are typically used as analgesics because they can reduce the signals that are then sent to the central nervous system interpreted as pain. But it's also more complicated than that because central opioid receptors in the brain also appear to induce analgeso by inhibiting cortical processing of pain.