RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Heroin is an extremely addictive narcotic drug derived from morphine. Its continued use requires increased amounts of the drug to achieve the same effect, resulting in tolerance and addiction. This study was done in order to determine the prevalence of musculoskeletal pain and forward head posture among heroin users during their withdrawal. METHODS: This research was a cross-sectional study that was done on 90 heroin users (83 males, 7 females) aged between 20 to 40 years (32.5 ± 3.81) during their withdrawal in Shiraz, Iran. They were selected by simple randomized sampling. Data were collected by a form regarding age, sex, the duration of heroin use, and musculoskeletal pain. Pain was measured by VAS (visual analog scale) and forward head posture was evaluated by plumb line. Pearson correlation technique and chi-square were used for analyzing the data. FINDINGS: The results revealed that the majority of heroin users suffered from musculoskeletal pain during their withdrawal. At the end of withdrawal 53.4% had severe pain, 38.8% had moderate pain, and 7.8% of them had mild pain. Pain in the lower extremities and low back was more common than the upper extremities. The intensity of pain before withdrawal was mild, during withdrawal was moderate, and at the end was sever, but there was no significant correlation between them. The results also showed 43.3% of subjects had normal posture and 56.7% had forward posture. CONCLUSION: According to the results, the intensity of pain increased during the withdrawal period; therefore, more attention must be paid to this complication in heroin users for better evaluation and a successful withdrawal.
RESUMO
BACKGROUND: The rising trend of smoking cigarettes, especially among the youth, has become a great concern in Iranian society. Not only does smoking cigarettes harm one financially, but also it will cause immense damage to the smoker as well as the society. This paper investigated the prevalence of musculoskeletal pain and the factors affecting it in young smokers. METHODS: The research has been conducted on 400 men smokers aged 18-30 studying at Shiraz University of Medical Sciences. Data was collected through a questionnaire containing information about age, history and amount of smoking, existence of pain and its severity according to the visual analog scale (VAS). The subjects were randomly selected while making sure the proportion of subjects from each department was appropriate. The subjects were smokers for more than two years and smoked more than five cigarettes a day. Data was analyzed by analysis of variance (ANOVA) and the least significant difference (LSD) test. FINDINGS: Among all studied subjects, 129 (32.25%) suffered from musculoskeletal pain. Most of the subjects (31.25%) had pain in their backs. The relationship between the duration of smoking and musculoskeletal pain, as well as that between the number of cigarettes smoked per day and the pain, was direct and significant. However, no significant relationship was found between age and pain. CONCLUSION: The occurrence of musculoskeletal pain in male students was relatively high. This fact can bring irrecoverable damages to the society and would put its health at risk. It also decreases the socioeconomic improvements.
