Does Heroin Leave Any Permanent Chemical Changes From 1 Time Use?

Question by Barnaby Jones: does heroin leave any permanent chemical changes from 1 time use?

Best answer:

Answer by Capt Blackie
I’m sure it doesn’t.

Answer by DayDreamer
it depends on the chemistry of your brain, if you are preconditioned to be dependent on the drug itself. There has been research done on this subject. it has been found that some people actually have a predisposition to substance abuse.

While this article speaks to cocaine, heroin has been found to have the same effect.

Taken from the Washington Post:

The rat study suggests that “some individuals may be predisposed to the effects of cocaine on the brain,” making them more likely to try the drug and become addicts, said lead researcher Dr. Jeffrey Dalley, of Cambridge University’s Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute in the United Kingdom.

Specifically, rats that went on to compulsively self-administer cocaine intravenously were more likely to have fewer brain cell-surface receptors for the neurotransmitter dopamine in an area of the brain called the nucleus accumbens, compared to rodents that were less prone to addiction.

“The study is the first to conclusively demonstrate that changes in dopamine receptors in the nucleus accumbenspre-datecocaine use,” Dalley said. That means that these brain changes are not caused by cocaine exposure but may encourage use of the drug.

The findings are published in the March 2 issue of Science.

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