Heroin is known to enhance catabolism and inhibit anabolism of purine nucleotides, leading to purine nucleotide deficiencies in rat brains. Here, we determined the effect of exogenous purine nucleotide administration on purine nucleotide metabolism in the brains of heroin-dependent rats. Heroin was administrated in increasing doses for 9 consecutive days to induce addiction, and the biochemical...

The neurobiological mechanisms of opiate addictive behaviour in humans are unknown. A proposed model of addiction implicates ascending brainstem neuromodulatory systems, particularly dopamine. Using functional neuroimaging, we assessed the neural response to heroin and heroin-related cues in established opiate addicts. We show that the effect of both heroin and heroin-related visual cues are ma...

Objective(s):Previous studies demonstrated a functional similarity between vertebrate and honey bee nervous systems. The aim of the present study was to compare the effects of heroin and Iranian street Kerack, a combination of heroin and caffeine, on sensory threshold and locomotor activity in honey bees. Materials and Methods: All drugs were given orally to honey bees 30 min before each exper...

conclusions reasons associated with initial and continued co-use of heroin kerack with ma, factors associated with treatment entry and the differences between regular and recreational co-users should be specifically considered in designing and tailoring drug use treatment programs for this group. materials and methods 82 clients were randomly recruited. a researcher-designed questionnaire was u...

PURPOSE The findings of previous studies attracted our interest in searching and defining the percentage of deaths from cancer in 'heroin regular addicts' i.e. those who had never stopped taking the drug since they started. METHODS The archives of the Greek Reitox Focal Point of the years 2001 to 2010 were retrospectively searched, focusing on the number of deaths from cancer of the regular h...

OBJECTIVE Studies have suggested that the N-methyl-D-aspartate antagonist dextromethorphan may be useful in the treatment of opioid dependence. DESIGN This double-blinded, placebo-controlled inpatient study evaluated the effects of 0, 30, and 60 mg of dextromethorphan and quinidine (DMQ) on the reinforcing and subjective effects of heroin in recently detoxified heroin abusers. PARTICIPANTS ...

BACKGROUND In early 2001 Australia experienced a sudden reduction in the availability of heroin which had widespread effects on illicit drug markets across the country. The consequences of this event, commonly referred to as the Australian 'heroin shortage', have been extensively studied and there has been considerable debate as to the causes of the shortage and its implications for drug policy...

BACKGROUND Studies have examined the association between heroin dependence and serotonin transporter gene polymorphisms but yielded inconsistent results. The purpose of current study is to determine the overall effect of these polymorphisms on the risk for heroin dependence through a meta-analytic method. METHODS A meta-analysis was conducted to examine the association of heroin dependence wi...

BDNF and its gene polymorphism may be important in synaptic plasticity and neuron survival, and may become a key target in the physiopathology of long-term heroin use. Thus, we investigated the relationships between brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) plasma concentrations and the BDNF Val66Met nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in heroin-dependent patients. The pretreatment expression levels o...