Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
“The brain changes, and it doesn’t recover when you just stop the drug because the brain has been actually changed,” Kreek explained. “The brain may get OK with time in some persons. But it’s hard to find a person who has completely normal brain function after a long cycle of opiate addiction, not without specific medication treatment.”
Addiction is a brain disorder characterized by compulsive drug use despite adverse consequences. [36] [57] [58] [59] Addiction involves the overstimulation of the brain's mesocorticolimbic reward circuit (reward system), essential for motivating behaviors linked to survival and reproductive fitness, like seeking food and sex. [60]
The expense of opioid replacement treatments in some countries has led some people to try treatments with limited evidence. At high doses, loperamide has been reported by some drug users to alleviate opioid withdrawal syndrome. [31] The doses reported in the literature are associated with a high risk of damage to the heart. [32]
Withdrawal symptoms from opiates include anxiety, sweating, vomiting, and diarrhea. Alcohol withdrawal symptoms include irritability, fatigue, shaking, sweating, and nausea. Withdrawal from nicotine can cause irritability, fatigue, insomnia, headache, and difficulty concentrating. Many prescription and legal nonprescription substances can also ...
It’s easier than ever for doctors to prescribe a key medicine for opioid addiction since the U.S. government lifted an obstacle last year. But despite the looser restrictions and the ongoing ...
Opiate overdose symptoms and signs can be referred to as the "opioid toxidrome triad": decreased level of consciousness, pinpoint pupils and respiratory depression. Other symptoms include seizures and muscle spasms. Sometimes an opiate overdose can lead to such a decreased level of consciousness such that the person will not wake up.
The terms 'opioid' and 'opiate' are sometimes used interchangeably, but the term 'opioid' is used to designate all substances, both natural and synthetic, that bind to opioid receptors in the brain. [4] Opiates are alkaloid compounds naturally found in the opium poppy plant Papaver somniferum. [5] [6]
[104] [34] The brain disease model of addiction posits that an individual's exposure to an addictive drug is the most significant environmental risk factor for addiction. [105] Many researchers, including neuroscientists, indicate that the brain disease model presents a misleading, incomplete, and potentially detrimental explanation of ...