abstract  introduction: addiction to opioids is a major health challenge in the world today. a few studies have addressed the effects of these substances and the wrong beliefs surrounding their use. this study was designed to compare plasma lipid peroxidation levels, blood lipids, fasting blood sugar (fbs), and glycosylated hemoglobin (hba1c) in opium addicts and non-addict control subjects. me...

It is hard to decide when and where the opium poppy was first cultivated. It may have been grown for its seeds before people discovered how to prepare mekonion from the leaves and fruits of the plant or opium (from "opos," the Greek word for juice) from the liquid that appears on the unripe seed capsule when it is notched. The use of written records to decipher the early history of opium use an...

For centuries opiate addiction has been a difficult health and social problem. The morbidity and mortality related to such addiction affect not only the individual but also bring disastrous effects to the affected families and their communities [1, 2]. Based on Quoting epidemiological data in social surveys done in the last decade, over 13 million opium addicts are living in different countries...

BACKGROUND Iran is one of the major consumers of opium and opiate substances in the world. Addiction has become a very important issue in the 21st century and an urgent one in Iran. The consumption of this substance leaves a variety of impacts on the human body. The goal of this study is to investigate the changes of the biochemical parameters derived from opiate substances in addicts during th...

background: there are widespread misconceptions about the positive effects of opium on coronary artery disease (cad). thus, we performed a study to explore the opium addiction process contributing factors among cad patients using a grounded theory approach.   methods : the sample comprised 30 addicted cad patients and their family members, physicians, nurses and friends. purposive and theoretic...

INTRODUCTION Cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption have a well-known effect on the development of upper aerodigestive tract carcinomas, but such a role for opium is questionable. This study was designed to assess the correlation between opium inhalation and cancer of the larynx and upper esophagus. MATERIALS AND METHODS Fifty eight patients with laryngeal cancer, ninety eight patients wit...

Biliary cast syndrome (BCS) is an uncommon complication which is mostly described in orthotopic liver transplantation. However, BCS has also been reported rarely in non-liver transplant patients. We describe a male long-term opium inhaler with BCS who underwent successful endoscopic cast removal by balloon enteroscopy-guided endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography. A 52-year-old man, who...

Novel drug delivery systems for controlled-release of opioid agonists as a long time painkillers or opioid antagonists for opium, heroin, and alcohol addiction are under development or in clinical use today. In this article, the field of "new drug delivery systems" is momentarily reviewed from the viewpoint of the marketed opioid agonists/antagonists dosage forms today.

INTRODUCTION The term narcotic has had wide and inconsistent usage in lay, legal and scientific circles. Some use the word to characterize any drug which produces stupor, insensibility or sleep; many apply it only to derivatives of the opium plant ( `opiates'); others consider the term equivalent to 'addiction-producing'; and in legal matters, 'narcotics' may refer to almost any allegedly dange...