Since December 2014, and as of 10 February 2015, 23 cases of botulism have been reported in Norway (eight cases) and Scotland (15 cases), affecting people who inject drugs (PWID). All the reported cases used heroin, and it is assumed that the source of the infections is contaminated heroin. The batch or batches of the heroin suspected of being contaminated with the spores of Clostridium botulin...

Heroin and nonopiate users, psychotic and nonpsychotic, were compared on the Bender-Gestalt test, a mental ability scale, and an affect adjective checklist. Analyses of variance and covariance indicated heroin effects were highly significant (p < .01) on the Bender-Gestalt test. Psychosis effects lacked significance on any test. Constricted use of space, a tendency to rotate designs, and persev...

Majority of previous heroin fMRI studies focused on abnormal brain function in heroin-dependent individuals. However, few fMRI studies focused on the resting-state abnormalities in heroin-dependent individuals and assessed the relationship between the resting-state functional connectivity changes and duration of heroin use. In the present study, discrete cosine transform (DCT) was employed to e...

While opioid abuse is an established medical and public health issue, the increased availability of highly potent synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl, has given rise to acute health complications, including a comatose state and death during drug overdose. Since respiratory depression that leads to acute hypoxia is the most dangerous complication of opioid drug use, we examined the effects of in...

BACKGROUND Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) remains poor among heroin users, even after being treated with methadone. Evidence regarding self-reported psychopathology and HRQoL in heroin users is also limited. The present study aimed to investigate the association between self-reported psychopathology and HRQoL in Asian heroin users treated with methadone. METHODS Thirty-nine heroin use...

BACKGROUND The use of both heroin and cocaine has been associated with asthma exacerbations. However, the magnitude of this effect has not been adequately described. The purpose of this study was to examine the association between cocaine or heroin use and asthma severity. METHODS We conducted a retrospective chart review of adult patients who had been admitted to an inner-city hospital and w...

The purpose of the present study was to investigate cumulative heroin effects on brain functioning by studying relationships among electroencephalography (EEG) spectral power and mean frequencies and heroin abuse history. Eyes-closed resting EEG data were collected from the 19 monopolar electrode sites in 33 heroin abusers and 13 age-matched healthy volunteers. The mean age of the patients was ...

BACKGROUND Little empirical research has examined how cultural factors influence psychosocial factors for heroin drug use. The objectives of the study were to investigate the levels of individualism and collectivism among young adolescents and how cultural differences were associated with the constructs of the Theory of Planned Behavior and other psychosocial factors for heroin drug use. METH...

patients to any degradation products after inhaling volatilized heroin, especially because they were obtained from a controlled clinical trial using pharmaceutical heroin, eliminating the possible influence of impurities, diluents, and adulterants present in street heroin.

BACKGROUND Methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) is recognized as one of the most effective treatments for heroin addiction but its effect is dimmed by the high incidence of heroin relapse. However, underlying neurobiology mechanism of heroin relapse under MMT is still largely unknown. Here, we took advantage of a resting-state fMRI technique by analysis of regional homogeneity (ReHo), and trie...