Thursday, June 11, 2009

HEROIN AND/OR COCAINE NOT GOOD IN PREGNANCY

This conclusion was reached by a Swiss laboratory study on placentas from mothers who received methadone treatment during pregnancy. Hardly surprising: risk of adverse consequences of heroin and cocaine obviously is not limited to the placenta, or to pregnant women, or to women or men who are not receiving methadone treatment. The study did not compare the harm of the illicit substances in placentas from women who did and who did not receive methadone treatment during pregnancy.

News summary available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/-/2/hi/health/8092732.stm

2 Comments:

At 4:03 AM, Anonymous insurance said...

yes you are right they are not looking smart in pregnancy..i think she need abortion

 
At 4:49 PM, Anonymous Dee said...

I assume this study was done with women addicted to street heroin? Is it any wonder a street drug, which is cut with who knows what is not good for the fetus? I am curious as to whether the research results would be the same, equivalent to, or better than methadone, if these women were receiving pure pharmaceutical grade opiates such as morphine or heroin in an oral continuous release format. (A contin format to allow blood levels to remain more level) Would the research results be that different from methadone?
Following the same logic, is it actually the methadone itself that is less harmful to the fetus, or the fact that it's a pure pharmaceutical grade opiate rather than a cut with who knows what, street grade opiate. Does the long half life, that allows levels of the drug in the body to remain more constant, have anything to do with the results? If they do, again, would another opiate in a continuous release format have the same results?

I am of the opinion that there should be other options besides methadone for opiate assisted addiction treatment, and that in some cases, other opiates such as morphine, heroin, or levo dromoran can have better treatment outcomes.

I think it's well worth noting that just like methadone, the less well known opioid, Levo Dromoran has quite a long half life and like methadone is also an NMDA receptor antagonist. Just as with methadone, one dose a day of levo dromoran would stave off withdrawals and cravings. (NMDA receptor antagonists supposedly have antinociceptive effects in and of themselves and are said to help keep tolerance in check too) Ketobemidone also has all these properties (not sure of the half life though) I'm curious as to why opioids such as these, being that they have many of the same properties as methadone, have never been used for opiate addiction treatment. I'm sure they could work quite well, and people who can't tolerate methadone well would have more options.

 

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