Valium is a sedating medication; it has a pronounced muscle relaxant, sedative, anticonvulsant, and hypnotic effect. With Valium, there is a decrease in pressure, vasodilation, paroxysms (painful seizures), and production of gastric juice at night (Cheng et al., 2018). Besides, it helps to make the pain threshold higher. Patients with arrhythmia, paresthesia, cardialgia note that the positive effect of Valium is observed by the end of the first week of therapy (Cheng et al., 2018). With withdrawal symptoms associated with chronic alcoholism, Valium helps reduce tremors, agitation, eliminate hallucinations, and delirium (a mental disorder accompanied by impaired consciousness) (Nowotny et al., 2017). In spite of the fact that the medication is useful, it has an adverse effect of addiction. The purpose of this paper is to contrast and compare Valium and heroin from a point of view of addiction and withdrawal.
Mental Effects
In rare cases, the medication causes euphoria, tremor, headache, depression, and anxiety. Scientists at the University of Geneva (Switzerland) have found that the tranquilizer has the same effect as heroin (Nowotny et al., 2017). The discovery of Swiss scientists will help explain the tendency of patients’ getting used to this medicine. According to doctors, under the action of Valium, a chemical GABA is produced that increases the level of dopamine in the brain (Nowotny et al., 2017). Heroin also does so; when a person takes the drug, he feels euphoria, happy satisfaction, all-filling enthusiasm (Nowotny et al., 2017). Then, these emotions are replaced by absolute calm; however, some people feel inspired and want to communicate. Hence, it might be stated that mentally, addiction to Valium and heroin is the same.
Physical Effects, Legal Status, and Withdrawal
From a physical point of view, a heroin taker has severe itching, cold sweat, acne, insomnia, and other disturbances. As for Valium, at the beginning of treatment, dizziness, drowsiness, increased fatigue, disorientation, and slow mental reaction might occur. Therefore, the physical sides of addiction to the substances analyzed are different. Speaking of finances, Valium is cheaper than heroin and is often used by drug addicts as a substitute for it. At the same time, selling and buying Valium is not a crime while trading with heroin is illegal. Heroin withdrawal is worse in comparison to Valium’s (Rivera, 2018). Therefore, it might be concluded that heroin is more dangerous than the tranquilizer.
References
- Cheng, T., Wallace, D. M., Ponteri, B., & Tuli, M. (2018). Valium without dependence? Individual GABAA receptor subtype contribution toward benzodiazepine addiction, tolerance, and therapeutic effects. Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment, 14, 1351.
- Nowotny, K. M., Perdue, T., Cepeda, A., & Valdez, A. (2017). Mental health of heroin users with differing injection drug use histories: A non-treatment sample of Mexican American young adult men. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 181, 124-131.
- Rivera, O. J. S., Havens, J. R., Parker, M. A., & Anthony, J. C. (2018). Risk of heroin dependence in newly incident heroin users. JAMA Psychiatry, 75(8), 863-864.