Heroin symptoms of withdrawal

IMMEDIATE HARM

The initial effects of heroin include a surge of sensation—a “rush.” This is often accompanied by a warm feeling of the skin and a dry mouth. Sometimes, the initial reaction can include vomiting or severe itching.

Early symptoms of withdrawal may include:

• Agitation
• Anxiety
• Muscle aches
• Increased tearing
• Insomnia
• Runny nose
• Sweating
• Yawning

Late symptoms of withdrawal include:

• Abdominal cramping
• Diarrhea
• Dilated pupils
• Goose bumps
• Nausea
• Vomiting

Treatment

Treatment involves supportive care and medications. The most commonly used medication is clonidine, and primarily reduces anxiety, agitation, muscle aches, sweating, runny nose, and cramping.

Other medications can treat vomiting and diarrhea.

Buprenorphine (Subutex) has been shown to work better than other medications for treating withdrawal from opiates, and it can shorten the length of detox. It may also be used for long-term maintenance like methadone.

People withdrawing from methadone may be placed on long-term maintenance. This involves slowly decreasing the dosage of methadone over time. This helps reduce the intensity of withdrawal symptoms.

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What is heroin withdrawal like?

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Old Before My Time

Series in which Cherry Healey investigates the alarming rise in numbers of young people suffering from illnesses associated with older people due to alcohol, drugs and obesity. Cherry investigates the alarming rise in numbers of young people suffering from illnesses associated with older people due to alcohol, drugs and obesity.

Credits

• Presenter: Cherry Healey
• Director: Tom Williams
• Executive Producer: Claire Faragher
• Executive Producer: Emma Hindley

We all know that drinking, drugs and fast food are bad for you, but these days a life of excess isn't just leaving young people hungover, it's accelerating their age - hit by chronic conditions usually the preserve of pensioners, their young bodies and minds are ready for retirement.

The effects of mescaline

Individuals with a personal or family history of serious mental illness may be particularly vulnerable to lengthy psychosis from mescaline, although a study of former and current users of mescaline, LSD, or psilocybin found that they scored normally on psychological tests—with the exception that persons who engaged in current hallucinogen use were more depressed and nervous and prone to risk-taking. Visual hallucinations during a mescaline dose are common; auditory ones less so. Aside from visual hallucinations, users not only may have trouble recognizing faces but may see startling transformations of their own faces in a mirror, viewing the image as not only something apart from themselves but as something ominous. People may feel like their bodies are changing in shape and be unable to detect portions of their bodies. Perceptions of time and space may also change. The drug intoxication typically begins with euphoria, but in a laboratory setting, the euphoria often converts to nervousness and suspicion, possibly ending in depression. Subjects have been known to say and do things they did not want to but were unable to stop themselves. Persons under the drug’s influence may be very open to suggestions, a state that could be exploited by unscrupulous persons.

Research shows that the drug can cause headache, perspiration, hot or cold sensations, feelings of prickling or burning, dizziness, cramps, nausea, and vomiting accompanied by small increases in pulse rate and blood pressure. In a sufficient dose mescaline can impair breathing, increase body temperature, and lower pulse rate and blood pressure. Hearing may become so sensitive that ordinary noises are painful. Other senses may have abnormal reactions also.

Source: The Encyclopedia of Addictive Drugs

Drawbacks using GHB

Tests using medical-size doses (which may be smaller than ones taken by illicit users) reveal no impairment of mental or physical abilities; the researchers concluded that GHB does not hurt job performance or ability to drive a car. Nevertheless, GHB is suspected of causing an automobile driver to pass out, and the drug’s sleep-inducing properties make it inadvisable to use while operating dangerous machinery. Supposedly the drug causes amnesia about events that occur while a person is intoxicated with the substance, although experiments using medical-size doses find no effect on short-term memory. A large-enough dose can slow heart rate and interfere with a person’s ability to move and make a person vomit and fall asleep. Breathing difficulty can occur. Seizures have been reported, but some authorities believe those reports have misidentified various muscle contractions as seizures. In monkeys the drug lowers body temperature. In rats that effect depends on a dose’s size, with small amounts raising body temperature and large amounts lowering it. An odd overdose effect has been observed in persons who temporarily stop breathing yet become violent despite that impairment. The drug reduces control of urination and defecation. Although GHB can cause blood to appear in urine, no damage to body organs has been observed. People can take medical doses for years without showing any psychotic symptoms

Richard Lawrence Miller - The Encyclopedia of Addictive Drugs

Smoking during pregnancy

Smoking reduces female fertility according to most studies of the topic, and studies of Canadian farm couples and of men in the Netherlands found an apparent reduction in male fertility as well. Pregnant women who smoke tobacco increase the chance of miscarriage, premature birth, smaller full-term infants, and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS or “crib death”).

The children are more likely to have muscle tone abnormalities. Smoking harms male and female gametes, damages chromosomes, and can change DNA in ways linked with childhood cancer. Nicotine usage by a pregnant woman changes movements and heart action of a fetus. One researcher warns that nicotine patches or chewing gum may deliver even more nicotine to a fetus than smoking would. Nicotine enters the milk of nursing mothers. Rat experiments indicate that fetal exposure to nicotine combined with newborn exposure to nicotine in milk increases the risk of offspring developing lung trouble similar to emphysema. Human birth defects have been attributed to tobacco smoking. Although a study of teenage tobacco smokers did not see any increased incidence of birth defects in their infants, research based on animal experimentation and published in 1998 declared that nicotine causes defects in fetal brain development leading to problems in thinking and learning that may not become apparent until years after birth. The children tend to have lower scores on psychological measurements, somewhat reminiscent of “cocaine babies,” deficits that continue for years. Some investigators see a link between pregnant smokers and offspring with psychological problems. Investigators tracking mothers and daughters for three decades found that daughters were more likely to take up smoking if their mothers smoked during pregnancy

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The Criminal Behavior of Drug Abusers

In 1997, the National Institute of Justice established the ArresteeDrug Abuse Monitoring (ADAM) Program to measure drug useamong people who have been arrested. To take this measurement,booking facilities in 35 U.S. cities collect voluntary and anonymous urine samples at the time of arrest. The researchers then calculate the percentage of arrestees who had urine tests that werepositive for drug use. In addition, researchers conduct interviews withthe arrestees about drug use and criminal activity. By combining drugtesting with self-report data from interviews, the ADAM program gives researchers a powerful tool for collecting evidence of patternsof drug abuse. Data from the ADAM program reveal that there is nosingle national drug problem, but rather different local drug problems that vary from city to city.

One of the factors that experts in the field of drugs and crimehave identified is that frequency of drug use increases criminal activ-ity. This is especially true for crimes involving property (such as theftor vandalism), and for people who are addicted to heroin, who abusecocaine, and who abuse more than one drug (multiple drug users)

Prevention Programs to Deter Violence, Substance Abuse, and Criminal Behavior presentation from Boulder, Colorado on Vimeo.

Alcohol: Fertility and pregnancy

A study of 430 couples in Denmark found fertility to decline among women as their alcohol consumption increased, but no effect was observed on male fertility. In contrast, a study of farm couples in Canada found no difference in fertility between women who did or did not drink alcohol.

Still another study, in the Netherlands, found male alcohol consumers to have higher fertility as consumption increased, with no difference in fertility rate between women who drank different amounts. Such findings of sometimes yes, sometimes no, are a classic sign of an “invalid variable,” which in this case would mean that no difference in fertility can be attributed to alcohol (although more studies would be needed to reach a firm conclusion, and some authorities say the trend of research indicates that alcohol does reduce female fertility).

A study found that premature infants were more likely among pregnant teenagers who drank alcohol than among those who did not. That effect was not seen among older pregnant women who drank. Other research has noted lower birthweights among children delivered by pregnant alcohol consumers. A human experiment documented fetal response to two glasses of wine drunk by women whose pregnancies were close to time of delivery: In that experiment fetal respiration and sleep were disturbed—which did not surprise researchers because heavy consumers of alcohol frequently give birth to infants having sleep difficulties. Such newborns may also have tremors and poor reflexes and cry more than normal. Children can be born dependent on the drug.

Alcohol is a well-known cause of birth defects. In mice the substance is known to cause a facial deformity called holoprosencephaly, and a human case report suggests that heavy dosage can do the same in humans. Less dramatic facial characteristics are common after substantial prenatal exposure to alcohol. Other human birth defects attributed to alcohol include kidney, heart, and brain trouble. More subtle damage has been measured as a slight decline in IQ among schoolchildren of mothers who took two or more drinks a day during pregnancy. Male exposure to some drugs can produce birth defects, and researchers have found problems in behavior and thinking skills among children of alcoholic fathers as well as among offspring of pregnant alcoholics. Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) is a collection of afflictions observed in children typically born to women who had six or more drinks a day while pregnant. The syndrome may include low birthweight, defective vision, delayed development, specific facial characteristics, trouble with muscles and joints, heart abnormality, and mental retardation. Problems can be long-lasting and even permanent. Prenatal exposure to alcohol can delay motor skill development in children, cause difficulties in maintaining balance, and limit growth in height.

Such children may be more impulsive and aggressive. A study of adolescents compared two groups, one born with FAS and another whose mothers drank little or no alcohol during pregnancy. The FAS group showed impairment in some types of memory, attention, thinking, and learning—findings supported by other research as well. Some researchers believe that fetal exposure to alcohol has more to do with teenage drinking than family environment does. Comparing adults with heavy prenatal alcohol exposure to those without such exposure, a small study measured significant psychiatric differences, particularly with the alcohol subjects being more depressed and fearful.

Fetal damage from maternal alcohol use is unquestionable, but the amount of use necessary to cause damage is less certain and can be affected by a woman’s general physical condition and lifestyle (including nutrition and other drug usage). Occasional binge drinking and routine heavy drinking are certainly hazardous to fetal development, but for many years pregnant women have used alcohol in moderation without apparent effect on offspring. Nonetheless, in general, women are now advised to avoid any alcohol consumption during pregnancy.

Experimenters note that alcohol consumption reduces mothers’ milk production but does not affect energy provided by the milk. Alcohol levels in milk are similar to a mother’s blood levels. A nursing infant may be sickened by milk from a mother who abuses alcohol—an infant has not yet developed the proper body chemistry to break down alcohol, so a dose lasts longer in an infant than in an older child or adult.

Reference: The Encyclopedia of addictive drugs – Richard Lawrence Miller ISBN: 0–313–31807–7