Changes in US Lifetime Heroin Use and Heroin Use Disorder

Changes in US Lifetime Heroin Use and Heroin Use Disorder: Prevalence From the 2001-2002 to 2012-2013 National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions.

Importance Heroin use is an urgent concern in the United States. Little is know about the course of heroin use, heroin use disorder, and associated factors. Objective To examine changes in the lifetime prevalence, patterns, and associated demographics of heroin use and use disorder from 2001-2002 to 2012-2013 in 2 nationally representative samples of the US adult general population. Design,...

The Use of Heroin

Heroin and Cocaine Price Changes and Polydrug Use

This paper studies polydrug use patterns in heroin and cocaine addicts. We use data on two experiments to measure the elasticity of several addictive drugs with respect to heroin and cocaine prices. Own and cross price elasticities are estimated while controlling for non-price related sources of variance. The results indicate that heroin addicts have an inelastic demand for heroin, complement h...

Problematic use of prescription-type opioids prior to heroin use among young heroin injectors

BACKGROUND: Misuse of prescription-type opioids and related adverse health effects are increasing, but little is known about the role of these drugs as a precursor to heroin use. We conducted an exploratory study to determine the proportion of young heroin injectors reporting problematic use of prescription-type opioids prior to using heroin, and to describe the factors associated with prior pr...

Problematic heroin use incidence trends in Spain.

AIMS To estimate the annual incidence of heroin use in Spain. PARTICIPANTS AND DESIGN Data on individuals' year of first heroin use (from 1971 to 2005), year of first heroin treatment between 1991 and 2005 and most frequent route of heroin administration when presenting to treatment were obtained from the Spanish Drug Observatory Register and used to calculate the delay between onset and trea...