Why heroin and morphine are addictive

A new study published in the annual meeting of the American Society of Neuroscience has clarified the addictive mechanism of dangerous chemicals such as heroin and morphine.

Morphin which is known as an extremely effective type of pain relief. Like heroin and many other products extracted from opium, besides the analgesic effect, morphine also creates another very serious danger of being addicted, or making patients want to be relieved. must gradually increase the dosage.

Before going into the problem, let's start with glia - a kind of complementary cell of the nervous system. Through 10 years of follow-up, the researchers found that when affected, glia acts to increase neuralgia (the most common is hip hip pain), by stimulating the Brain neuron emits a painful painful feeling .

Morphin blocks the nerve endings, so users immediately see their lesions less painful. But morphine also stimulates active glia cells, and in turn, glia acts on neurons to create a long-term neuralgia feeling. It is possible to imagine the chain of effects as follows: Painful morphine-wounds to relieve pain, at the same time get the feeling of neuralgia again by using morphine to relieve pain and suffering from neuralgia . Too The process goes on with increasing and addictive doses. This also explains why when drugs are lacking, addicts enjoy pain like a needle under the skin.

After discovering the mechanism, to find ways to limit the addictive effect, the researchers prepared and tried the effect of a substance called AV411. AV411 functions to block glia cells from working.

Fruit of poppy (Photo: About.com)

The experiment was carried out on mice, divided into 2 groups, one group only used morphine, the other group used morphine in combination with AV411. The results showed that because glia was inactive due to AV411, morphine's analgesic effect on the second group was significantly increased, and, after taking the drug, the second group quickly got rid of the effect. extra (artificial pain) compared to the first group.

In the experiment, the researchers also deliberately allowed mice to take medicine at a fixed location only, forcing those who were addicted to return to the right place to use the medicine. After a while, mice in the first group tended to return significantly more to the site, indicating that they were more likely to become addicted and addicted to them than mice in the second group.

"The results of this study play an important role in resolving pathological pain problems, paving the way for the development of more effective and non-addictive painkillers," said Nora Volkow, Director. The National Academy of Drug Abuse said.

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