Opioid Use Disorder
Symptoms, Doctors, Treatments, Advances & More

Learn About Opioid Use Disorder

What is the definition of Opioid Use Disorder?

Opioid-based medicines include morphine, oxycodone, and synthetic (man-made) opioid narcotics, such as fentanyl. They are often prescribed to treat pain after an injury, surgery, or a dental procedure. Sometimes, they are used to treat severe cough or diarrhea. The illegal drug heroin is also an opioid. When abused, opioids cause a person to feel relaxed and intensely happy (euphoria). In short, the medicines are used to get high.

Opioid intoxication is a condition in which you're not only high from using the medicine, but you may also have body-wide symptoms that can make you ill or impaired.

What are the alternative names for Opioid Use Disorder?

Intoxication - opioids; Opioid abuse - intoxication; Opioid use - intoxication

What are the causes of Opioid Use Disorder?

Opioid intoxication may occur when a health care provider prescribes an opioid, but:

  • The dose is too high for the person.
  • The provider doesn't know the person is already taking another opioid at home.
  • The provider prescribes a sleep medicine (sedative) in addition to the opioid.
  • The provider doesn't know that another provider already prescribed an opioid or sedative.
  • The person has a health problem, such as a liver or kidney problem, that may easily result in intoxication.

In people who use opioids to get high, intoxication may be caused by:

  • Using too much of the medicine
  • Using an opioid with certain other medicines, such as sleep medicine or alcohol
  • Taking the opioid in ways not normally used, such as smoked or inhaled through the nose (snorted)
What are the symptoms of Opioid Use Disorder?

Symptoms depend on how much of the medicine is taken.

Symptoms of opioid intoxication can include:

  • Altered mental status, such as confusion, delirium, or decreased awareness or responsiveness
  • Breathing problems (breathing may slow and eventually stop)
  • Extreme sleepiness or loss of alertness
  • Nausea and vomiting
  • Small pupils
Not sure about your diagnosis?
Check Your Symptoms
What are the current treatments for Opioid Use Disorder?

The provider will measure and monitor the person's vital signs, including temperature, pulse, breathing rate, and blood pressure. Symptoms will be treated as appropriate. The person may receive:

  • Breathing support, including oxygen, or a tube that goes through the mouth into the lungs and attachment to a breathing machine (ventilator)
  • Intravenous fluids (fluids given through a vein)
  • Medicine called naloxone (Evzio, Narcan) to block the effect of the opioid on the central nervous system
  • Other medicines as needed

Since the effect of the naloxone is often short, your health care team may monitor you for 4 to 6 hours in the emergency department. People with moderate to severe intoxication will often be admitted to the hospital for 24 to 48 hours.

A mental health evaluation is needed if the person is suicidal.

Who are the top Opioid Use Disorder Local Doctors?
Joji Suzuki
Elite in Opioid Use Disorder
Psychiatry
Elite in Opioid Use Disorder
Psychiatry

Brigham And Women's Hospital, Department Of Psychiatry

75 Francis Street, 
Boston, MA 
Languages Spoken:
English

Dr Suzuki is the Director of the Division of Addiction Psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry, Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), and an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School (HMS). He has been a consultation-liaison psychiatrist in the Division of Medical Psychiatry at BWH, and serves as the Program Director for the BWH Addiction Medicine Fellowship Program. He has been very active in both medical student and resident education throughout his career. He is a member of Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers and is the course director for the HMS CME course on motivational interviewing. His research has received funding from National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), CDC, SAMHSA, BWH, and HMS. In 2018 he was awarded a NIDA K23 Career Development Award to receive mentored training in conducting clinical trials, and to study the impact of recovery coaches on hospitalized patients with opioid use disorder. He is a sought-out speaker both locally and nationally, and currently serves on a variety of committees, workgroups, and taskforces for Mass General Brigham, HMS, American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry, Academy of Consultation Liaison Psychiatry, and the State of Massachusetts.  He has published 80 manuscripts and book chapters as first or co-author. Dr. Suzuki is rated as an Elite provider by MediFind in the treatment of Opioid Use Disorder. His top areas of expertise are Opioid Use Disorder and Delirium.

Frances R. Levin
Elite in Opioid Use Disorder
Elite in Opioid Use Disorder

CUIMC/Herbert Pardes Building Of The New York State Psychiatric Institute

1051 Riverside Drive, 
New York, NY 
Languages Spoken:
English

Frances Rudnick Levin, MD is the Kennedy-Leavy Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University and the Chief of the Division on Substance Use Disorders at NYSPI/Columbia University. For over twenty years, she served as the Director of the Addiction Psychiatry Fellowship Program at New York-Presbyterian Hospital and for the past sixteen years, she has been the PI of a T32 NIDA funded Substance Abuse Research Fellowship which has been continuously funded since 1994. Dr. Levin graduated from Cornell University Medical College and completed her psychiatric residency at the New York Hospital-Payne Whitney Clinic. Subsequently, she graduated from a 2-year combined clinical and research fellowship at the University of Maryland and the Addiction Research Center, the intramural branch of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). Currently, she serves as the Medical Director of the Providers’ Clinical Support System (PCSS), a SAMHSA-supported national training and mentoring initiative focused on addressing the opioid use disorder crisis. Also, she is the Medical Director of a SAMHSA-supported State Targeted Response technical assistance grant (the Opioid Response Network) to address the national opioid epidemic.Dr. Levin, working with other senior faculty, inaugurated the university-wide Center for Healing of Opioid and Other Substance Use Disorders: Enhancing Intervention Development and Implementation (CHOSEN) in 2020 and serves as one of the senior Directors. Moreover, she is the principal investigator of several federal grants, including a K24 Mid-Career Investigator Award as well as a Co-Investigator on numerous other grants.Her current research interests include pharmacologic and psychotherapeutic treatment interventions for opioid, cocaine and marijuana use disorders, and treatment approaches for adults with substance use disorders and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder along with other psychiatric illnesses. Dr. Levin has over two-hundred and fifty articles and book chapters on a wide range of topics including treatments of substance use disorders, assessment, and treatment of co-occurring psychiatric illnesses and vulnerabilities associated with substance use disorders. She has served on several advisory panels and ad-hoc federal grant review groups and was a member of the NIDA – Initial Review Group: Training and Career Development Subcommittee for eight years and served as a member to the NIDA Interventions to Prevent and Treat Addiction (IPTA). She is currently on the Board of Directors for the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry (AAAP), the College on Drug Dependence (CPDD), and the American Society of ADHD and Related Disorders (APSARD). She is an editorial board member of three journals, past President of the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry, and past Chair of the APA Council on Addiction Psychiatry. Dr. Levin is rated as an Elite provider by MediFind in the treatment of Opioid Use Disorder. Her top areas of expertise are Opioid Use Disorder, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

 
 
 
 
Learn about our expert tiers
Learn More
Elite in Opioid Use Disorder
Psychiatry | Addiction Medicine
Elite in Opioid Use Disorder
Psychiatry | Addiction Medicine

Kentucky Medical Services Foundation, Inc

2400 Greatstone Pt, 
Lexington, KY 
Languages Spoken:
English

Michelle Lofwall is a Psychiatrist and an Addiction Medicine provider in Lexington, Kentucky. Dr. Lofwall is rated as an Elite provider by MediFind in the treatment of Opioid Use Disorder. Her top area of expertise is Opioid Use Disorder.

What is the outlook (prognosis) for Opioid Use Disorder?

Many factors determine the short- and long-term outcome after opioid intoxication. Some of these are:

  • The degree of poisoning, for example, if the person stopped breathing, and for how long
  • How often the medicines are used
  • Effect of impurities mixed in with illegal substances
  • Injuries that occur as a result of the medicine use
  • Underlying medical conditions
What are the possible complications of Opioid Use Disorder?

Health problems that may occur include any of the following:

  • Permanent lung damage
  • Seizures, tremors
  • Reduced ability to think clearly
  • Unsteadiness and difficulty walking
  • Infections or even permanent damage of the organs as a result of injection use of the drug
What are the latest Opioid Use Disorder Clinical Trials?
A Study to Train a Machine Learning Algorithm for an Evaluation of the Use of Biometric Data Captured at the Wrist for the Identification of Acute Opioid Use Events and the Quantification of Opioid Withdrawal in Opioid Dependent Individuals

Summary: To train a machine learning model/algorithm for an evaluation of the use of biometric data captured at the wrist for the identification of acute opioid use events and the quantification of opioid withdrawal in opioid dependent individuals.

Match to trials
Find the right clinical trials for you in under a minute
Get started
Combined tDCS and Cognitive Training as an Adjunctive Treatment in Opioid Use Disorder

Summary: The overall goal of this study is to investigate the added benefit of a neuromodulation intervention in individuals under buprenorphine maintenance treatment for OUD (bOUD).

Who are the sources who wrote this article ?

Published Date: April 08, 2025
Published By: Jesse Borke, MD, CPE, FAAEM, FACEP, Attending Physician at Kaiser Permanente, Orange County, CA. Also reviewed by David C. Dugdale, MD, Medical Director, Brenda Conaway, Editorial Director, and the A.D.A.M. Editorial team.

What are the references for this article ?

Aronson JK. Opioid receptor agonists. In: Aronson JK, ed. Meyler's Side Effects of Drugs. 16th ed. Waltham, MA: Elsevier; 2016:348-380.

Brust JCM. Effects of drug abuse on the nervous system. In: Jankovic J, Mazziotta JC, Pomeroy SL, Newman NJ, eds. Bradley and Daroff's Neurology in Clinical Practice. 8th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; 2022:chap 87.

National Institute on Drug Abuse website. Opioids. nida.nih.gov/research-topics/opioids. Updated November 2024. Accessed July 11, 2025.

National Institute on Drug Abuse website. Heroin research report: what are the medical complications of chronic heroin use? nida.nih.gov/publications/research-reports/heroin/what-are-medical-complications-chronic-heroin-use. Updated July 2011. Accessed April 16, 2025.

Nikolaides JK, Thompson TM. Opioids. In: Walls RM, eds. Rosen's Emergency Medicine: Concepts and Clinical Practice. 10th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; 2023:chap 151.