SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- Some obese patients may face risks of breathing problems if they are undergoing treatment of opioid addiction with a drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), a new study suggests.

The drug, called buprenorphine, a Schedule III medicine with a lower abuse potential than methadone, is one of three drugs approved by the FDA to help patients undergoing treatment for opioid abuse.

Scientists from U.S. University of Tennessee at Knoxville (UT Knoxville) found that the drug impairs the ability of obese mice to vary their breathing.

Their findings were published in the latest edition of Anesthesiology, the peer-reviewed medical journal of the American Society of Anesthesiologists.

The UT Knoxville researchers studied both mice of normal weight and obese mice, and discovered the drug's previously unknown side effect, which may help clinicians improve patient care.

"Given the impressive similarity between mouse and human genes, the mouse data encourage studying the effects of buprenorphine on breathing variability in male and female obese humans," said Ralph Lydic, the study's lead author and professor of Neuroscience in the UT Department of Psychology.

The UT Knoxville study is specially relevant at a time when U.S. federal and state officials are grappling with ways to combat the nation's growing opioid abuse epidemic.

"Recovery from opioid addiction is very difficult and, in the most successful cases, can require two or more years," Lydic said.

The discovery of the effect of buprenorphine will help seek public support for the need to support basic and clinical research, he noted.