Heroin addicts taking part in a experiment tended to underestimate the intensity of withdrawal symptoms, leading researchers to conclude that if experienced users make such mistakes then the general public also is unlikely to misunderstand the intensity of drug withdrawal.

UPI reported Feb. 12 that researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, in an eight-week study, asked 13 heroin addicts to choose between various amounts of money and an extra dose of the anti-craving drug buprenorphine. The researchers found that addicts assigned double the value to a dose of buprenorphine at the point right before they were due to get a dose of the drug -- with craving at its peak -- as they did after receiving a dose of the medication.

"If addicts can't appreciate the intensity of craving when they aren't currently experiencing it, as these results suggest, it seems unlikely that those who have never experienced a craving could predict its motivational force," said lead author George Loewenstein.

The research was published in the online edition of the Journal of Health Economics.