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Dependence on Opiates

Opiate addiction, an ever increasing worldwide health problem, impacts all of our lives with enormous economic, personal and public health consequences transcending gender, socio-economic status, race, and age.  Whether it is heroin, methadone, pain pills or other opiate-based drugs and medications the illness is the very similar. 

Opiate production has doubled in the last decade, flooding world markets at remarkably low and competitive prices.  The more accessible the drug, the higher the cost to society: disability, unemployment, welfare, public assistance, the courts and prison system, and countless other indirect losses.  The bill comes to billions of dollars in health-related costs.

Dependency to legally prescribed narcotic/opiate based pain relievers is at an all time high. The incidence of dependency to these types of medications is staggering. Moreover, opiate addiction destroys a person’s sense of self.  It causes decay, both mentally and physically, bringing on depression, anger and despair.  Addiction devastates home life, terminates careers, and threatens health, safety and neighborhoods.  Addiction is about denial, isolation, neglected families, abandoned friendships, betrayal, fear and broken promises.

The Conceptual Basis Behind AAROD

Physical dependency to opiates/narcotics is a physical disease based on underlying psychological, environmental, genetic and biochemical issues.  This involves the central nervous system and is caused by continuous opiate intake, changing the normal activity in the brain and neuro-receptors called kappa and mu receptors. Neurons (cells particular to the nervous system) normally produce their own natural opiates (endorphins); continued use of opiates cease the production and function, degenerate, and eventually slow down the natural release of the endorphins which bind to the kappa and mu receptors.  These are the naturally occurring endorphins responsible for our general feelings of well-being and the ability to overcome pain. Constant administration of external opiates which also bind to the kappa and mu receptors, as is the case in opiate addiction, causes grave changes in neuronal function, greatly decreasing the ability of these cells to produce endorphins. 

For the addicted individual, natural endorphins have almost entirely been substituted by outside opiates: the nerve cells decrease their own endorphin production because they have become dependent upon these external sources.  Thus, without these external sources, the addicted individual who is slowly withdrawn has no tolerance for pain and so experiences increasing withdrawal discomfort. This is similar to an individual peeling a Band-Aid off very slowly.

In order to overcome this phenomenon of biochemical imbalance induced by opiate addiction and bring the patient back to a normal state of functioning, the external opiates must first be removed from the system to allow the body to renew its natural supply of endorphins.  However, the abrupt removal of opiates often results in a traumatic stress disorder causing severe consequences to the entire system.  This causes the opiate dependent person to experience an agonizing withdrawal, which can persist for prolonged periods of time.  When the opiates are withdrawn the nervous system becomes more active to compensate for the lack sedative effects of the drugs.