it sounds as though the
time spent dependant could be important, as both people in which i have seen this phenomenon have been dependant for ~11 years for one, and ~6 years for the other, and it wasnt something that was noticed until after at least 4-5 years; as for the "junkie lifestyle," only the first subject shot up but only had some of the 'junkie' characteristics; the other primarily insufflated and had none of the 'junkie' characteristics; you'd likely never know either used drugs at all unless they confessed, they took good care of themselves. of course its entirely possible they're exceptions, and thats what i'm trying to find out.
so lets tighten the criterea a bit... if you've been dependant for 5 or more years and are NOT on bupe maintenance, i'd like your input. also the primary opioid used could matter,
as both subjects primarily use/abuse oxycodone, so i'd like to know the primarly opioid abused as well. perhaps the cause could be due to the stimulant effects of oc, since its suggested that stimulants will damage memory and intellect more than anything else... what makes the opioid hypothesis interesting is that, unlike stimulants, the damage from opioid use is indirect. my understanding is that with stimulants, what basically happens is that the receptors become permanantly downregulated from overstimulation, while opioids cause indirect damage; the g-coupled proteins that activate after receptor activation start to become uncoupled (ie, a receptor is activated, which causes it to release peptides inside the neuron, which then activate something else, and so on... this decreases from opioid dependancy; if i can find my book from my Drugs & Behavior class, i could better explain it), and if it turns out that this leads to a decrease in mental function as a rule rather than an exception, it'll help towards understanding how memory and intellegence actually work. if its just from of the stimulating effects of oxycodone though... well, it'll still help in some way because the mechanism of damage could be different from the classic, more neurotoxic cns stimulants. i'd really prefer that to not be the case, since that damage might not be reversable...
another thing: its well known that cannabis screws up your memory, since endogenous cannabinoids are used to regulate memory, so if you're a chronic marijuana smoker, you're exempt as well
i'd really like to refine this hypothesis and see where it leads. unfortunately its not really something that can be found out through experimentation, as making somebody get addicted to opioids for 5+ years is not only illegal, but unethical, so the only way to work it is through polls like this...
