A question of medico-legal interest occasionally occurs in Civil Surgeons' work, when a sample of opium is submitted by the police, or Magistrate for favour of an opinion as to whether it is crude opium or Government excise opium. Thisopinion is asked for as it is illegal to sell crude opium. Text-books on medical jurisprudence seem to o-ive no information on the point, and as it is a question ...

Background: Acute opium intoxication is one of the most common causes of poisoning in children in Iran. Although most cases are accidental, traditional misuse of opium for symptomatic therapy of various childhood diseases also contributes to high rate of opium intoxication in Iran. Cases: Here, we report two cases of opium intoxication in infants resulted from transdermal application of opium o...

Background: Iran is one of the major consumers of opium and opiate substances in the world. Addiction has become a very important issue in the 21st century and an urgent one in Iran. The consumption of this substance leaves a variety of impacts on the human body. The goal of this study is to investigate the changes of the biochemical parameters derived from opiate substances in addicts during t...

Opium addiction is a common form of addiction in Middle East countries such as Iran. Recently several reports suggested some kinds of pathologic findings such as abdominal pain, nephropathy, and anemia in opium addict patients. Such pathologic findings suggest lead poisoning in the patients. In this study, the concentration of lead in 10 opium samples was evaluated. The mean concentration of le...

Gabapentin is a potentially useful drug in alleviating the hyperexcitatory painful states in the control of opiate dependence in acute detoxification and the stabilization phase. This study aim was to evaluate the effectiveness of gabapentin adds-on methadone therapy on lowering the methadone. This randomized double blind controlled clinical trial conducted at an outpatient rehabilitation clini...

Background: The effects of opium dependence on prognosis and short term outcome of patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) are not clear yet. Methods: From March 2004 to August 2004 all male patients admitted with diagnosis of AMI were enrolled. Patients who fulfilled DSMIV-TR criteria were chosen as opium dependent patients (ODP). Demographic data, risk factors, peak enzyme levels, loc...

BACKGROUND Opium use in diabetic populations is associated with major depressive disorder (MDD). This study was designed to investigate the relationship between opium use and severity of depression in Iranian diabetic patients. METHODS In this case-control study, 642 type 2 diabetic patients were recruited from those presenting at two outpatient clinics at the Akhavan Hospital in Kashan, Iran...

BACKGROUND Today, the society's need to find the roots of a few thousand-year old substance abuse and the drugs addiction crisis has increased to the extent that it has become a problem within our country. The problem of substance dependence is not only about drug abuse, but it is actually the interrelationship of the person and the dependency on drugs. This study aimed to compare early maladap...

AIM To study survival in isolated coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) patients and to evaluate the impact of preoperative chronic opium consumption on long-term outcome. METHODS Cohort of 566 isolated CABG patients as Tehran Heart Center cardiac output measurement was conducted. Daily evaluation until discharge as well as 4- and 12-mo and 6.5-year follow-up information for survival status wer...

Through epidemiological method, prevalence of drug dependence in the four villages of Panjgur is estimated to be 3.37% of the population.. Cannabis was found to be abused by 1.13%, opium 0.5% and heroin 0.64%. The difference between the estimates of heroin abuse made earlier through information from patients and the current survey is more than five times. It is suggested that currently used est...