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Narcotic Addiction
Medical Questions » Narcotic Addiction
| Name: Narcotic Addiction |
| Also known as: Heroin Addiction |
| Abuse of one of the most addictive substances known. Narcotics including codeine, pethidine, morphine and oxycodone, are all derived from heroin and can be abused if taken regularly or excessively. Used medically as tablets or injections to relieve pain and diarrhoea. Normally used by addicts as an injection directly into the veins, but may also be inhaled or eaten, when they have a much slower effect. |
Causes of Narcotic Addiction
Refined from the milky juice of the opium poppy. Most abusers have personality disorders, antisocial behavior, or are placed in situations of extreme stress. Possibly one in every 100 people in developed countries is dependent upon illicit drugs, and a far higher percentage have experimented with them at one time or another. |
Symptoms of Narcotic Addiction
Causes exaggerated happiness, relief of pain, a feeling of unreality7, and a sensation of bodily detachment. Contracted pupils that do not respond to light are a sign of use. Tolerance develops quickly, and with time, higher and higher doses must be used to cause the same effect. |
Tests for Narcotic Addiction
Blood and urine tests can detect the presence of narcotics. |
Treatment for Narcotic Addiction
The treatment options available are:
1. Gradual withdrawal while receiving counseling and medical support.
2. Immediate drug withdrawal (' cold turkey' ) while hospitalized in a specialized unit, sometimes combined with other drugs that are used temporarily to reduce the symptoms associated with the drug withdrawal.
3. Substitution of heroin with a prescribed medication (eg. methadone) on a medium to long-term basis before it is slowly withdrawn.
4. Naltrexone may be used to flush heroin from the body, and relieve the addiction, within a few days, a process that must be undertaken under strict supervision in a specialized clinic. Naltrexone may also be used long term to reduce the desire for heroin.
5. Half-way houses that remove the patient from the environment in which drug taking is encouraged.
6. Individual or group psychotherapy.
7. Education of intravenous drug users of the dangers associated with their habit (eg. the development of AIDS or hepatitis B).
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Complications of Narcotic Addiction of its treatment
Often combined with abuse of alcohol, smoking and synthetic drugs. Physiological problems include vomiting, constipation, brain damage (personality changes, paranoia), nerve damage (persistent pins and needles or numbness), infertility, impotence, stunting of growth in children, difficulty in breathing (to the point of stopping breathing if given in high doses) and low blood pressure. Withdrawal causes vomiting, diarrhoea, coughing, twitching, fever, crying, excessive sweating, generalized muscle pain, rapid breathing and an intense desire for the drug. These symptoms can commence within 8 to 12 hours of the last dose, and peaks at 48 to 72 hours after withdrawal. Mild symptoms may persist for up to six months. As sterile techniques are often not followed when self injecting, the veins and skin at the injection site become infected and scarred. |
Likely Outcome of Narcotic Addiction
One quarter of heroin addicts will die within ten years of commencing the habit as a direct result of the heroin use. A rising proportion will die from complications of the intravenous injections such as AIDS, septicemia and hepatitis B, C and D. |
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