Heroin

Heroin which is commonly referred by addicts as smack, black or H is commonly induced into the body through injections and sometimes taken orally or smoked.
It has been observed that an addict abuses Heroin over and over again to experience the same high or trip that he felt when they first used heroin in their life, but they are never able to achieve that same kind of satisfaction. With time they have to continuously up the dose to calm one self.
After sometime they start abusing heroin with other substances like alcohol, hallucinogens and opioids to attain the desired level of high and further damaging the brain and substantially increasing the risk of psychotic disorders.
The withdrawal syndrome for this particular drug is acute as its withdrawal symptoms starts to occur within 24 hours of discontinuation of the drug.
This drug builds fast tolerance in the body, as a result creating high level of dependency for the dose of this drug.
HISTORY
In 1800’s The United States Of America was dealing with severe morphine addiction in the country. So in the year 1847 it was thought the new wonder drug “Heroine” could help in coping with addiction to morphine. It was believed at that moment of time that it is a non addictive substance soon it was proved wrong, but the addiction to heroin became difficult to control after that point onwards.

Withdrawal syndromes:

• Severe muscle and bone ache
• Cramps
• Cold sweats
• Sudden experience of chills
• Insomnia ( difficulty in sleeping)
• Nausea
• Watery eyes
• Vomiting
• Excessive tears and sneezing
• Track marks on hands and legs
• Agitation and irritability
• Paranoia
• hallucinations

ADVERSE AFFECTS ON BRAIN:

• Bipolar disorder
• Personality disorder
• Schizophrenia
• Depression related disorder
• Anxiety disorder
• Post-traumatic stress disorder
• Alcoholism
• Increased risk of addiction to other substances

Mr V D, age 34 was suffering from depression from the past 1 year, due to his failed marriage. One day one of his friends who was a regular heroine user introduced him to heroine, stating it will change his mind and make him feel more energetic and happy. He being alone and hopeless used the drug, they both injected heroine with the same injection. He after administering the drug felt charged up and ecstatic, though he wasn’t consciously aware of his actions, he was just aware that he is hallucinating and he was enjoying it. He started injecting heroin on a daily basis and after a few months, he started consuming high amount of alcohol alongside heroin. He without the usage of heroine even for a single day started experiencing severe withdrawals like cramps in the whole body, severe seating and chills in the body simultaneously, he couldn’t sleep at night. He experienced extremes of two moods, which periodically started getting worst. One was a severely depressed state, where he used to think his life is worthless and is over, this was a state when he couldn’t use heroin, and the other mood was of extreme mania, where he was hyperactive, extremely talkative and energetic, this was a state, when he injected heroin. His condition was worsening and his dependency on heroin increased. One of his old friends visited him and was shocked to see his extreme condition as he begged him to get some heroin for him. His friend on the pretext of getting him heroin got him to the clinic, where upon examination it was known that he had induced bipolar disorder from heroin addiction.