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Side Effects:
- Short-Term
- "Rush"
- Depressed respiration
- Clouded mental functioning
- Nausea and vomiting
- Suppression of pain
- Spontaneous abortion
- Long-Term
- Addiction
- Infectious diseases, for example, HIV/AIDS and hepatitis B
and C
- Collapsed veins
- Bacterial infections
- Abscesses
- Infection of heart lining and valves
- Arthritis and other rheumatologic problem
Medical Consequences of Heroin Abuse
Medical consequences of chronic heroin abuse include scarred and/or
collapsed veins, bacterial infections of the blood vessels and heart
valves, abscesses (boils) and other soft-tissue infections, and liver
or kidney disease. Lung complications (including various types of pneumonia
and tuberculosis) may result from the poor health condition of the
abuser as well as from heroin's depressing effects on respiration.
Many of the additives in street heroin may include substances that
do not readily dissolve and result in clogging the blood vessels that
lead to the lungs, liver, kidneys, or brain. This can cause infection
or even death of small patches of cells in vital organs. Immune reactions
to these or other contaminants can cause arthritis or other rheumatologic
problems.
Of course, sharing of injection equipment or fluids can lead to
some of the most severe consequences of heroin abuse-infections with
hepatitis B and C, HIV, and a host of other blood-borne viruses,
which drug abusers can then pass on to their sexual partners and
children.
Heroin abuse can cause serious complications during pregnancy, including
miscarriage and premature delivery. Children born to addicted mothers
are at greater risk of SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome), as well.
Pregnant women should not be detoxified from opiates because of the
increased risk of spontaneous abortion or premature delivery; rather,
treatment with methadone is strongly advised. Although infants born
to mothers taking prescribed methadone may show signs of physical
dependence, they can be treated easily and safely in the nursery.
Research has demonstrated also that the effects of in utero exposure
to methadone are relatively benign.
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