BACKGROUND

Long-term heroin abuse is related to pathological changes in many organs mediated by oxidative stress (OS).

OBJECTIVE

Estimation of systemic OS and antioxidant capacity in heroin addiction and detoxification provides information about prooxidant/antioxidant homeostasis in heroin misuse and need for antioxidant supplementation.

METHODS

OS was evaluated by the measurement of plasma reactive oxygen metabolites using spectrophotometric method and plasma lipid peroxidation by its end product--malondyaldehyd using Tiobarbituric Acid Reactions Substances method. The extracellular antioxidant capacity was estimated using OXY-adsorbent test.

RESULTS

This cross-sectional study includes 68 patients: 46 heroin addicts (20 patients on chronic heroin abuse, 19 patients on conventional method of detoxification and 7 patients on opioid antagonist--naltrexone (and 22 patients as a control) group. Increased OS was found in the heroin group (d-ROMs 349.3 +/- 102.2 UCarr, MDA 4.0 +/- 0.4 micromol/L) compared to the group on detoxification (d-ROMs 230.2 +/- 96.4 UCarr; MDA 3.6 +/- 0.3 micromol/L) and control group (d-ROMs 264.1 +/- 30.9 UCarr; MDA 3.7 +/- 0.2 micromol/L). TAC was decreased in the heroin group (324.5 +/- 75.0 micromol HClO/ml) and restored during conventional detoxification (371.8 +/- 25.1 micromol HClO/ml), but not completely in the group with naltrexone treatment (335.6 +/- 16.9 micromol HClO/ml) compared with controls (395.4 +/- 35.6 micromol HClO/ml).

CONCLUSIONS

Long-term heroin abuse stimulates a progressive systemic oxidative stress which increases the extracellular antioxidants consumption and develops conditions for chronic heroin toxicity (Fig. 1, Tab. 4, Ref. 35). Full Text (Free, PDF) www.bmj.sk.