Does treatment for heroin addiction work?

Heroin addiction is a chronic, relapsing "brain disease" characterized by compulsive drug seeking and use as a result of chemical changes in the brain. Long-term use of opioids like heroin can alter the brain's chemistry to the point that the individual may have very long term and possibly permanent craving for heroin. In cases like these, synthetic, long-acting narcotics such as methadone, which is an endorphin replacement medication, will be needed for long-term treatment. Methadone is given to addicts to simultaneously block the "rush" and eliminate withdrawal symptoms.

What does heroin look like?

Pure heroin consists of a white powder with a bitter taste, but pure heroin is not commonly found on the street. Because of the presence of additives and impurities, most heroin consists of a white to dark brown powder. Heroin is often combined or "cut" with sugar, starch, powdered milk, quinine, and less often, with strychnine, to reduce purity and create more heroin to sell. Slang terms for heroin include dope, big H, dr. feelgood, smack, horse, anti-freeze, dirt, beast, doa, mud, brown sugar, chiva, china white, Mexican brown, junk, black tar, beast, chase the dragon, monkey water, la Buena, harry, and cotics.

What are heroin's long-term effects?

The long-term effects of heroin are severe addiction and withdrawal, collapsed and scarred veins, bacterial infections, infection of heart lining and valves, abscesses or boils, arthritis or other rheumatologic problems, liver and kidney diseases, increased risk of pneumonia and tuberculosis, and other infectious diseases. Injecting drug users are at particular risk of infection with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, and hepatitis, a liver disease. Both diseases are spread by sharing needles, using unsterilized drug paraphernalia, and participating in risky sexual behavior.

Page last modified Sun Apr 05 14:04:13 2009.