Morphine and Opium Addiction and Their Effects on the Heart and Related Heart Diseases

Abstract

Background: Nowadays opium addiction is most important problem in most countries. There are some false beliefs about role of opium in prevention and control of heart disease in society, thus suggestion about opium usage is common in this regard. This review is written based on studies that were performed about relation between opium addiction and heart disease. Materials and Methods: In this review study, relevant articles indexed in Information Sciences Institute, PubMed, Scientific Information Database, IranMedex, SID, PubMed and Scopus were used to search between 1980 and 2017, with further emphasis on those indexed from 2008 to 2019. We used these keywords to search: opium addiction, lipid peroxidation, blood sugar, blood fat, atherosclerosis, infarct size, arrhythmia and heart disease done in people opium addiction. Results: Data showed the relation between opium addiction and lipid peroxidation, blood sugar, infarct size, arrhythmia and Malondialdehyde index. Different effects have been observed in different studies. This difference may be due to the effect of anesthesia, the dose of the drug, the site of action in the brain, respiratory changes, and the characteristics of the receptors. Conclusion: Opium addiction associated with different effects on blood sugar, blood fat, blood pressure, atherosclerosis, infarct size, arrhythmia and heart disease.