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Heroin
medication Under reviewHeroin (diacetylmorphine) is a semi-synthetic opioid derived from morphine, which itself comes from the opium poppy. It crosses the blood–brain barrier rapidly and is converted to 6-monoacetylmorphine and morphine, which then activate mu-opioid receptors in the central nervous system. This produces intense euphoria, analgesia, sedation, and slowed breathing. Heroin is not a nutritional supplement but a powerful psychoactive drug with a very high risk of dependence, overdose, and death. In some countries, medically supervised heroin-assisted treatment is used as a second-line therapy for severe heroin use disorder that has not responded to other treatments. Outside these narrow medical contexts, heroin use is illegal and associated with substantial harms including addiction, infectious disease transmission, organ damage, and social and psychiatric consequences. Because of its pharmacology, heroin acutely alters mood, pain perception, and physiological responses such as pupil size, respiration, and cardiovascular parameters. These short-term effects occur at the cost of a very high addiction risk, rapid development of tolerance, and a well-characterized withdrawal syndrome when use is reduced or stopped.
Research summary
Human studies on heroin focus almost entirely on addiction, withdrawal, overdose risk, and the use of prescribed or supervised injectable heroin as treatment for severe heroin use disorder. Acute laboratory studies in non-physically dependent but opioid-experienced volunteers characterize subjective and physiological effects, while randomized trials compare heroin-assisted treatment with methadone or other opioid agonist therapies in people with long-standing dependence. There is no evidence supporting heroin as a health-promoting supplement in healthy humans. Instead, research consistently shows a high probability of developing heroin dependence within months of first use, significant withdrawal symptoms upon cessation, and serious health and social harms. The only positive health-related findings involve improved outcomes when prescribed heroin is used within tightly regulated medical programs for individuals with treatment-refractory heroin use disorder, not for healthy people.
Reported Benefits
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Characterizing the subjective, observer-rated, and physiological effects of hydromorphone relative to heroin in a human laboratory study.
Comer SD, Sullivan MA, Vosburg SK, Ward AS, Levin FR, Kleber HD, Fischman MW
Reported Side Effects
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Characterizing the subjective, observer-rated, and physiological effects of hydromorphone relative to heroin in a human laboratory study.
Comer SD, Sullivan MA, Vosburg SK, Ward AS, Levin FR, Kleber HD, Fischman MW
No reports yet
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Risk of Heroin Dependence in Newly Incident Heroin Users.
Martins SS, Ghandour LA, Lee CK, et al.
No reports yet
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Add Heroin to your stack to report effects
Risk of Heroin Dependence in Newly Incident Heroin Users.
Martins SS, Ghandour LA, Lee CK, et al.
Research (2 studies)
Risk of Heroin Dependence in Newly Incident Heroin Users.
Martins SS, Ghandour LA, Lee CK, et al.
Characterizing the subjective, observer-rated, and physiological effects of hydromorphone relative to heroin in a human laboratory study.
Comer SD, Sullivan MA, Vosburg SK, Ward AS, Levin FR, Kleber HD, Fischman MW
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