Heroin Addiction - Treatment, Symptoms and Causes

Heroin discovered as a recreational drug and for medical use, now needs medicine for its addiction treatment.

Heroin is a drug derived from opium refined from the poppy plant. Just like other opiates, it affects the nervous system of a person, giving him a euphoric time. Approximately 30 million people use drugs such as opiates worldwide annually. This number is increasing continuously as the way of smuggling it is increasing. Countries are coming up with policies to cope up this increment but to no avail. People are dying each day. According to DARA, approximately 3 million people in India are drug addicts. India sees approximately seven deaths per day due to drug abuse.

According to a survey, 9 out of 10 heroin addicts have used minimum one drug before coming to heroin. This explains the increasing number of the drug addiction and heroin addiction is increasing in parallel. Let’s see some of the causes which add to addiction:

• Genetics: If a person’s ancestors are addicted to heroin or any other drug, it is more likely that person will be addicted to drugs. It is due to transfer of genes from one generation to another.
• Environment: The person living in heroin abused environment has a high probability of getting addicted.
• Stress: People use drugs to come out of stress and then take medication to come out of drugs. This explains the increasing addiction among people. Stress can be due to peer pressure, family problems, office problems etc.
• Pleasure: Sometimes brain becomes so much addicted to the drugs that it craves a person for its pleasure.

The symptoms vary from person to person depending upon the factors such as daily dose amount, genetic makeup, frequency etc. Here are some of them:

• Avoiding social gatherings such as family functions, parties etc
• Depleting relationship with loved ones
• Low breathing rates
• Using clothes to hide the scars of skin developed while taking the drugs
• Dry mouth
• Increase in sleep
• Slurred speech
• Increased itching and constricted pupils
• Stockpiling drugs and hiding them at various places
• Deny any use of drugs when asked
• Numb body parts and weight loss
• Loss of motivation and interest for work
• Person start using illegal ways of theft to collect money for buying heroin
• Burn spoons, aluminium foils, needles found with the person
• Psychological symptoms such as Depression, anxiety, stress, fear etc.

De-addicting a person is a long-term process and varies from person to person depending upon parameters such as addiction time, person’s age, does etc. Still, some of the treatment methods are as follow:

• Using medications: A person addicted to heroin, for a long time, may have severe withdrawal symptoms if stopped suddenly. So to treat these people, safer opioids such as methadone, buprenorphine is given instead of harmful opioids such as heroin. These activate the same opioid receptors but are less addictive in nature. Slowly and slowly these decrease a person’s dependency on heroin.
• Behavioral therapy: In this, a person’s lifestyle (emotionally and mentally) is changed to decrease his addiction and cravings towards heroin. Methods such as contingency management and cognitive- behavioural therapy have shown good results.

Contingency management includes rewarding points to a person for each negative drug test he has. The person can use these points as an exchange for health items. In cognitive- behavioural therapy, a person’s behaviour and expectations related to drugs are modified to help him deal with the stress without depending on heroin.

The treatment for Heroin Addiction involves two methods i.e Pharmacological treatment and Behavioral therapy. Withdrawal of Heroin Addiction is quite a difficult process accompanied by pain and discomfort. It may be followed by some serious symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. Pharmacological therapy aids in minimizing the painful symptoms as well as cravings. The therapy also facilitates reducing the probabilities of heroin intake for the detoxification process.

Behavioral therapy that involves dealing with the psychological state of a drug-addictive mind, is fruitful for the individual in different ways. It can help the affected person to overcome the situation as it enables him/her to identify the triggering factors for drug abuse. It also aids in dealing with symptoms of cravings and relapse and helps to deal with emotional stress.

Both person and society help in the prevention of increasing heroin addiction. Keeping these in mind, following ways can act as prevention techniques:

• Increasing awareness about heroin’s disadvantage through various platforms such as newspapers, books, and social media, especially to youth.
• Consulting with an expert if a person or his family member observes the above-mentioned symptoms increasing with time.
• Teaching people methods to deal with stress, which doesn’t include any drug use.
• A person should leave the heroin abused environment if it is affecting him. Also, to stop the cravings for heroin, he must keep his mind indulged and busy.
• To stop genetics as a cause for heroin addiction, the older generation must de-addict first.

The symptoms a person shows after stopping heroin addiction suddenly are termed as withdrawal symptoms and can be from gentle like a headache to severe like death. These also vary from person to person depending on factors such as age, time of addiction etc.

Some withdrawal symptoms are:

• Increase in cravings for heroin
• Diarrhea
• Fever
• Insomnia
• Depression, Anxiety, and Stress
• Blood in vomits
• Pain in body parts especially muscles and joints
• Cold sweats
• Crying without any reason
• A Runny Nose

Summary: Heroin is an addictive drug, obtained from ‘’opium poppy’’, that can be incorporated into the human body by the means of snorting, smoking, or injection. The treatment in order to get rid of it includes medications and behavioral therapy. Some of the medicines that are preferred to be taken are Buprenorphine, Methadone, and Naltrexone. Behavioral therapy deals with the psychological state of the drug addictive mind.