Heroin Addiction and Treatment

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Heroin Addiction and Treatment
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Heroin What is it and why is it addictive?
-was first prescribed in late 1800s as
analgesic -most addictive, widely abused
opiate -has rapid effects once in CNS
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Opiates Act on Many Places in the Brain and
Nervous System
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Available Medical treatment

• Methadone
• Buprenorphine
• Naltrexone (and naloxone)
• Future
• HAT (HeroinAssisted Treatment)
• target inhibition of GluR2 in mPFC

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Methadone

• Synthetic opiod, full agonist
• Most widely available treatment for opiate
  withdrawal symptoms
• Relieves narcotic craving

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Buprenorphine

• FDA approved in 2002
• Partial agonist
• Subutex v. Suboxone
• In high doses can block effects of full agonists

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Naltrexone (and naloxone)

• Antagonists
• Overdose prevention
• Current research of efficacy for heroin treatment
  still in progress

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Heroin-Assisted Therapy

• using heroin to treat heroin addiction
• Harm reduction
• prohibited and limited in most countries

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Inhibition of GluR2 in mPFC

• Reexposure to cues associated with heroin
  self-administration leads to gene expression in
  mPFC
• Isotope labeling of proteins showed synaptic
  membrane expression of AMPAR in mPFC is reduced
  after reexposure to heroin cues

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Summary

• Heroin Addiction and Treatment pose both
  political and scientific struggles
• Further research and changes in legislation
  necessary to solve the problem