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Why is heroin so addictive and how is the addiction treated?
Manav and Jay discussed why is heroin so addictive and how is the addiction treated?
Heroin acts as an opiate causing euphoria through increases in dopamine levels. The structure of heroin influences its unique pharmacokinetics ultimately leading to unpleasant withdrawal symptoms and changes to the psychology of abusers.
In 2015, the US experienced a sustained life expectancy decline. This had not occurred since the First World War in 1915. The perpetrator this time, however, was opioid drugs. More people in the United States died from overdoses involving opioids in 2017 than from HIV or AIDS related illnesses at the peak of the AIDS epidemic. The epidemic arose as Purdue Pharma and other companies promoted their opioid products heavily. They emphasized the safety, efficacy, and low potential for addiction to prescription opioids. The most marketed opioid was OxyContin. People would be prescribed this drug and become addicted to it. The addictiveness of OxyContin became known to the companies. It was then reformulated and became less easy to obtain.
This led to people who had become dependent on OxyContin finding a close substitute which at the time was easier to obtain. This was heroin.
Overall, heroin is a very dangerous and addictive drug that can lead to the ruin of many lives. As the body develops a tolerance for the drug, more heroin is needed to produce the same effects of euphoria as before. This can lead to people increasing their intake of the opioid to the point where they no longer have control over their feelings of pleasure and pain and become reliant on the drug. Dependence, tolerance, and addictiveness are consequences of opioid abuse all of which originate from changes to the neurobiology of the brain. The challenge for the opioid abuser is to overcome the changes to the brain using medication. Methadone acts on the brain and interacts with the same receptors as opioids. These help to normalize brain activity to reduce the effects of the physiological changes and ease the drug addict’s withdrawal symptoms.
