Addiction

Addiction is a condition in which an individual is physically or psychologically compelled to regularly use a substance or perform a specific activity in order to experience a benefit or to avoid discomfort, to the point that using the substance or performing the activity becomes a top priority, often negatively affecting the person’s life quality, health and social functions.

How heroin affects people

Heroin is adsorbed quickly (comes to blood) with all administration ways. If intravenous injection, blood concentration peak is achieved during 1 minute at the latest, if inhalation or intramuscular injection – during 3-5 minutes. Heroin comes from blood in brain very quickly – during 15-30 seconds and accumulates there in high concentrations.

Brain absorbs about 70% of the entire heroin taken. Quick growth of heroin concentration in brain produces a feeling of so-called “wave”. Intensity of feelings depends on quantity of heroin taken and speed of its concentration growth in brain. Feelings of warmth, relaxation and euphoria appear after intake of heroin.

Passing effects of heroin:

Wave (rush)
Respiratory depression
Euphoria
Mental performance depression
Nausea, vomiting
Disturbance of movement co-ordination
Skin itch
Spontaneous abortion

Long administration of heroin results in:

Appearing of addiction
Hepatitis B, C, AIDS, syphilis (if common syringes and needles are used)
Abscesses at injection spot
Vein thrombosis
Bacterial endocarditis (inflammation and destruction of cardiac valves)
Arthritis (joint inflammation)
Osteomyelitis (suppurative inflammation and destruction of bone tissue)
In women – disordered menstrual cycle and sterility.
In men - impotence

In case of long use of heroin, human brain terminates production of own opiates – endorphins and enkephalins, which are necessary for normal operation of nervous system. At this stage, drug addict became dependent completely on a regular administration of narcotic otherwise abstinent syndrome (anxiety, depression, insuperable wish to take a drug, sneezing, lacrimation, pains in muscle, waist, stomach, diarrhoea, etc.) inevitably develops in some time.

Not sterile needles, syringes and heroin itself condition many dangers of drug administration. Drug addict himself/herself introduces millions microbes every time of injections. Favourable colonisation places of microbes are – cardiac valve flappers and lumbar vertebras. With time, destruction of cardiac valves may happen with development of heavy cardiac insufficiency. Treatment – prosthesis of cardiac valves – is expensive and dangerous operation. Distribution of hepatitis B, C and AIDS among drug addicts took epidemic character. All these diseases are invalidising (causes loss of capacity for work) and potentially fatal. Neuropsychic disorders in form of memory weakening, working capacity impairment, depression, sleep disturbance inevitably appear in all opiate drug addicts, These disorders may remain during several months after termination of drugs.