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Opioids Brain Damage?

DexterMeth said:
Not at all. Overdoses however, can cause many complications. Sometimes strokes and seizures are involved. Sometimes comas. All this can fuck your brain up.
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But opiates do change the way the brain deals with pain and hormones, correct? Such as someone who uses opiates for years will be in more pain from something than someone who has not?
 
That may be somewhat true Ron, but opiates have no damaging effects on the human body. They are not toxic and can be used safely forever in safe/normal doses. They dont destroy your liver like alcohol and APAP, they don't destroy your kidneys, they dont destroy any organs like other drugs can.. Opiates would be the prefect drug if it wasn't for addiction they cause..
 
If you take opiates to the point where you are addicted and will withdraw without them, they are changing your brain. Your brain is always trying to maintain homeostasis, so if a drug, whether heroin, cocaine, or whatever is flooding your synapses with dopamine, your brain adapts so it functions normally with lots of dopamine. If the drug is removed, then the brain will need to compensate. The brain is extremely neuroplastic and capable of change, though. Opiate addicts usually gradually feel better the longer they go without using after withdrawal. The brain does adapt. It used to take 8 mg of Suboxone to make me feel normal, now 0.5 mg actually gets me high.

The same thing happens with antidepressants and other drugs...they cause changes in the brain which generally can be reversed, although the period while the brain repairs itself isn't always fun. I wouldn't use the term brain damage...I think that should be reserved for cases of irreversible damage, like neural death. I wouldn't hesitate to say that potentially neurotoxic chemicals like MDMA and methamphetamine can cause brain damage at least at certain doses under certain conditions, which is why I never took either.
 
I dont think that opiates cause permanent changes to dopamine or serotonin like the stimulants do. Amphetamine/Meth will kill out and deplete your dopamine neurons, but it doesnt appear that opiates will do that.
 
WSB15 said:
If you take opiates to the point where you are addicted and will withdraw without them, they are changing your brain. Your brain is always trying to maintain homeostasis, so if a drug, whether heroin, cocaine, or whatever is flooding your synapses with dopamine, your brain adapts so it functions normally with lots of dopamine. If the drug is removed, then the brain will need to compensate. The brain is extremely neuroplastic and capable of change.
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this. but things do not necessarily grow back the way they once were. opiates do not seem relatively (coke, amp, MDMA, pcp, etc.) harmful to the CNS, but prolonged use of any psychoactive substance is not good for your brain. extended and heavy use of opiates almost surely causes some level of synaptic pruning, but i am not in the know enough to say anymore or be sure. if you wanna know about opiates effects on the brain, go to the library and check medical journals. bluelight is not the place; people just say things. once you have found something of interest in med journals and you wanna talk about, it take it to ADD.
 
Hmm .

I think opiates don't damage your brain nearly as much as harder drugs like speed , MDMA and meth.


I would say it's along the lines of the minor brain damage you get from smoking weed - and you
usually only get damage from smoking pot if you smoke it chronically .
Memory , learning , motivation is affected .

* but if ur using opiates chronically ur in for a serious addiction ride unfortunatley which sucks
 
In terms of physical damage to brain, or by that I mean rearranging how your brain interacts with drugs and other "naturally" produced chemicals, from my own experience opiates are some of the most forgiving drugs in the world.

I mean, I've surely been severely addicted to a number of them, from hydrocodone (to the point where I was dumb enough to take 12 vicodins a day for two or three weeks - with all that apap included!) to heroin (up to a 3 bundle a day habit - intranasal) to suboxone to pods (worst withdrawal experience ever imho) and pseudo opiates like kratom and tramadol (so much more forgiving with habitual use, although not to be underestimated in any way).

These drugs have had a much MUCH less negative effect on my life than my previous cocaine, methamphetatmine, amphetamine, mdma, benzo/z-drugs use. In fact, the only ways I really have see opiates affecting my life (basically going on a four to five year addiction now) in a "structural," interpersonal relationship sort of ways way, if that makes sense at least. They basically, and I'm not saying for the better but not necessarily for worse, affect how I go about my "normal" routine. They affect how I deal with social interaction, school, work, etc.

Often, they've had a horrible effect on what I do and how I treat people - i.e. at one point they led me to cheat, steal and lie on a regular basis, even to those I most loved and continue to love, back in my early heroin days. But now after learning how to control my use and after having to deal with the (horrible, yes) consequences of my actions related to opiate use, they have had a much less negative impact on my life - in fact, given some long time intense depression problems, they are more and more affecting me in positive ways. That is, since I've learned how to "control" my use (at least to a reasonable degree - i.e. not cheating stealing and lying).

But in terms of major damage done to the brain, seratonin levels and such, well, I haven't had much of a problem with them, at least in such negative ways as one might worry. And at least, that is, since I've learned how to control my use. In comparison to my past cocaine use, that REALLY messed me up in the head, like horrible depression resulting from prolonged excessive use. I've had a similar effect from irresponsible mdma and RC use.

However, from my experience with almost every drug I've encountered (23 years of age) now, I find that the most dangerous drugs in terms of changing the way your brain functions, you have much more to worry about in more long term ways is more with drugs such as benzos, z-drugs and amphetamine/methamphetamine drug use, especially if it's irresponsible, habitual and, well, shall we say more than used on a regular basis. Basically, I'm much more concerned with my use and overuse of things like xanax and amphetamine.

Compared to drugs like those, I find opiates to be REALLY benign on my body and how it works (again, there is the caviate of addiction, but that's a whole other bag oh worms, as others have mentioned). Opiates, short of the problems related to moderate-severe addiction, are a pretty forgiving type of drug, at least on its impact on you biology/neurology.

Hope I haven't been repeating myself too much here. Little xanax relaxation at the moment.
 
Opioids don't damage the brain, but they can (and in addiction, often do) permanently change how it works.

Now, chronic hypoxia or apnea caused by opioid-induced nodding can cause brain damage, as could any number of contaminants introduced during the course of illicit IV opioid use.
 
Lowered oxygen levels from opiate nodding/ respiratory depression is a common cause of brain damage in opiate users. Try to avoid dosing more than is necessary to get the wanted effects; deep nods that more or less render the user unconscious are certainly hazardous to health. Nods in themselves aren't what I'm warning against; it is the very deep nods that cause respiratory depression that should be avoided.
 
it does take a toll in other ways tho. permanent constipation is going to cause malnutrition and increased chance of bowl cancer. smack heads have pretty bad eating habits too.
 
^Thanks, in the future please explain the links you are talking about, though.
 
Wait.. Surely the stimulation of opiod sites , results in down regulation , which then results in other problems ... No?

Cause let's face it . When u have some sort of chemical inbalace in your brain something is going to be "wrong" with you...
 
jamesmartin said:
Wait.. Surely the stimulation of opiod sites , results in down regulation , which then results in other problems ... No?
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I read this sentence like 6 times to see if i could make sense of it and failed each time! one of us must really suck.

anyhoo, another thing I wanted to add:
I have read reports of ultra long tern reports causing heart weakening. I dont know how exactly this happens but it makes sense to me on an intuitive level; opiates lower your heart rate. Having you heart rate altered all the time(either higher or lower) can not be good long term.
 
downward_backward said:
I read this sentence like 6 times to see if i could make sense of it and failed each time! one of us must really suck.

.
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I'm saying that when you use opiates they stimulate ur opiod receptorea in your brain .
And stimulating anything in your brain usually has negative implications..
 
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