It is difficult to conceive that tolerance and sensitization processes, two apparently opposite phenomena, can concomitantly modify one given biological process, i.e., the processing of pain. We have shown recently that opiates produce not only analgesia but also long-lasting hyperalgesia in rats. This suggests that tolerance to the analgesic effect of an opiate, especially heroin, could be in ...

The current paper examines critically the literature on suicide rates, suicide risk factors and methods employed for suicide among heroin users, and compares these to those of the general population. Heroin users have a death rate 13 times that of their peers, and deaths among heroin users attributed to suicide range from 3-35%. Overall, heroin users are 14 times more likely than peers to die f...

AIMS In this paper we outline and evaluate competing explanations for a heroin shortage that occurred in Australia during 2001 with an abrupt onset at the beginning of 2001. METHODS We evaluated each of the explanations offered for the shortage against evidence from a variety of sources: government reports, police and drug law enforcement documents and briefings, key informant (KI) interviews...

Heroin overdose, more accurately termed 'heroin-related overdose' due to the frequent involvement of other drugs, is the leading cause of mortality among regular heroin users. (Degenhardt et al., 2010) Heroin injectors are at greater risk of hospital admission for heroin-related overdose (HOD) in the eastern United States where Colombian-sourced powder heroin is sold than in the western US wher...

background: peripheral nervous injury and neuromuscular complications from methamphetamine abuse has not been reported. the mechanism is not yet identified. methods: eight patients with lower extremity weakness following methamphetamine abuse were reported during december 2009 to may 2010. results: patients presented with lower extremity weakness. all patients were co-abusers of methamphetamine...

BACKGROUND H2S is a novel type of endogenous neural regulatory factor and gaseous mediator. Exogenous H2S can increase heroin-induced learning and memory damage in rat and alleviates heroin-induced rat hippocampus damage through antioxidant and anti-apoptosis effects. OBJECTIVE Aim of this study was to identify whether hydrogen sulfide (H2S) protects heroin withdrawal rat is related with aden...

Recent evidence has shown that a single maintenance dose of heroin attenuates psychophysiological stress responses in heroin-dependent patients, probably reflecting the effectiveness of heroin-assisted therapies for the treatment of severe heroin addiction. However, the underlying neural circuitry of these effects has not yet been investigated. Using a cross-over, double-blind, vehicle-controll...

Studies in rats have shown that intermittent footshock stress reinstates drug seeking after prolonged drug-free periods. Recently, we found that another environmental stressor, acute 1 d food deprivation, potently reinstates heroin seeking in rats. Here we report that this effect of food deprivation can be blocked by leptin, a hormone involved in the regulation of energy balance and food intake...

In previous studies, heroin was shown to engender cocaine-like discriminative stimulus (DS) effects; however, the mechanisms underlying the cocaine-like effects of heroin are unknown. The present study evaluated the extent to which the shared DS effects of heroin and cocaine involve common monoaminergic mechanisms of action. In squirrel monkeys discriminating cocaine (0.3 mg/kg) from saline, he...

Heroin abuse is an international problem with which all countries must continually cope. Many countries have implemented heroin substitution therapy as an effective means of decreasing illicit heroin use, crime, HIV risk, and death, and in improving employment and social adjustment. Although methadone is the most commonly used medication for heroin substitution, other agonists in current use in...