BACKGROUND Many of lay person believe that opium lowers blood glucose. However some studies show the opposite results. In this study, we tried to evaluate the effect of opium on blood glucose and insulin resistance. METHODS This comparative study including 53 addicts in case groups who used opium just in the form of smoking and 55 non-addicts in a control group, took part in the study, after ...

The effect of opium addiction on the appearance of different types of arrhythmias after acute myocardial infarction (AMI) has been assessed in few studies. This study is aimed to determine the effect of opium on post-MI arrhythmia and also to address the differences in the appearance of different types of arrhythmias after AMI between opium addicted and non-addicted patients. In this comparativ...

Opium addiction is a common form of addiction in Middle East countries such as Iran. Recently several reports suggested some kinds of pathologic findings such as abdominal pain, nephropathy, and anemia in opium addict patients. Such pathologic findings suggest lead poisoning in the patients. In this study, the concentration of lead in 10 opium samples was evaluated. The mean concentration of le...

BACKGROUND Like any other drug abuse, opium use is known to have detrimental effects on oral health. Oral hygiene neglect in opium users can lead to tooth loss resulting in further functional, esthetic, and dieting problems. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the association between tooth loss and opium addiction in a large-scale population. MATERIALS AND METHODS This study was pa...

BACKGROUND A comparison of oral/inhaled opium addicts with a healthy control group was investigated. Using the graphite furnace atomic absorption spectroscopy (GF-AAS) followed by chemometric analysis, sub-to-low µg L-1 concentrations of blood lead level (BLL) was detected in both the addict and the control groups. MATERIALS AND METHODS In this study, BLL of 78 subjects (Iranian volunteers) i...

BACKGROUND The risk of infectious, autoimmune and immunodeficiency diseases and cancers rise in opioid addicts due to changes in innate and acquired immune responses. Three types of opioid receptors (К-δ-μ) are expressed on the surface of lymphocytes and mononuclear phagocytes. The present study was designed to examine the effects of different concentrations of opium on the secretion of some cy...

BACKGROUND The rate of cardiovascular diseases in developing countries is approximately 60% and it is still has an increasing trend. The clinical effectiveness of aspirin in preventing cardiovascular events has been well proven. Although aspirin is an effective and inexpensive drug, its consumption is not equally beneficial for all patients. Many factors can be affective on the efficacy of anti...

Over 25 years anti-opium laws were enacted by three Asian governments in countries where opium use was traditional. Within months, heroin use suddenly appeared; and within a decade, heroin addiction surpassed opium addiction. The laws led to (1) increased price of narcotic drugs, (2) a heroin "industry," (3) corruption of the law enforcement system, and (4) major health problems involving paren...

background: this study was done to test the notion that opium can reduce serum lipids and decrease the risk of ischemic heart disease (ihd) in opium addicts; we made a comparison between the lipid profiles of opium addicts and non-addicts.   methods: in this study, we compared 100 male opium addicts (according to the icd-10 criteria) who had referred to addiction treatment centers with 75 healt...

BACKGROUND Bladder cancer is a major health problem, especially among men. Opium addiction can be an important risk factor. One important question is whether it can affect the age of onset of bladder cancer .We performed this study to evaluate this question. MATERIALS AND METHODS In a cross-section study, records of patients diagnosed with bladder carcinoma in Shahid Labbafinejad Medical Cent...