What is Heroin addiction?

Opioid dependence or opioid use disorder is a medical condition of opioid addiction, and is characterized by a compulsive use of opioids (e.g., morphine, heroin, codeine, oxycodone, hydrocodone, etc.) in spite of consequences of continued use. The necessary descriptive characteristics of the medical diagnosis are preoccupation with a desire to obtain and take the drug and persistent drug-seeking behaviour. In a non-diagnostic context, opioid dependence properly refers to a dependence-withdrawal syndrome that is characterized by both psychological dependence and marked physical dependence upon opioid compounds; this dependence-withdrawal syndrome is a component of opioid addiction.

Opioid use disorders resulted in 51,000 deaths in 2013 up from 18,000 deaths in 1990.