Cynthia's dilemma: consenting to heroin prescription.

Addiction and consent.

In teaching medical students and residents about substance dependence, I often use the phrase " the addiction takes on a life of its own. " This intuitive expression begins to introduce how the severely addicted person becomes merely the " means " for the substance, how the person is displaced within his own body, how there becomes a fundamental separation within the addicted person who himself...

Cynthia's Dilemma.

بررسی سوء‏مصرف داروهای تجویزی در ایران و جهان

The globalization of drug abuse has become a world-wide epidemic and a national threat to youths in all counties. The newest phenomenon is prescription drug abuse. It began in Germany and spread throughout Europe, then to England, and to the United States, Asia and Iran. Teenagers and young adults in contemporary society are not using as much illicit drugs (like methamphetamines, ecstasy, heroi...

Nonmedical Prescription Opioid Use in Childhood and Early Adolescence Predicts Transitions to Heroin Use in Young Adulthood: A National Study.

OBJECTIVES To examine the relationship between nonmedical use of prescription opioids and heroin initiation from childhood to young adulthood, and to test whether certain ages, racial/ethnic, and income groups were at higher risk for this transition. STUDY DESIGN Among a nationally representative sample of US adolescents assessed in the 2004-2011 National Surveys on Drug Use and Health cross-...

Unintentional drug overdose death trends in New Mexico, USA, 1990-2005: combinations of heroin, cocaine, prescription opioids and alcohol.

AIMS To determine the contribution of heroin, prescription opioids, cocaine and alcohol/drug combinations to the total overdose death rate and identify changes in drug overdose patterns among New Mexico subpopulations. DESIGN We analyzed medical examiner data for all unintentional drug overdose deaths in New Mexico during 1990-2005. Age-adjusted drug overdose death rates were calculated by se...