Introduction: Ischemic stroke occurs due to obstruction of one feeding artery of the brain. One of its preventable factors with yet no clear role is opium addiction. The suggested mechanisms are the decrement of total oxygen consumption, and increase of the coagulation potential and serum level of fibrinogen, inhibition of the function of calcium and venous endothelial growth factor and increase of the serum level of total cholesterol

Objective: To investigate the relationship between opium addiction and thrombotic ischemic stroke.

Materials and Methods: In this case-control study which was conducted in Rasht hospitals from April 2013 to March 2014, two groups with and without ischemic stroke were assessed in terms of opium dependency, dosage and the methods of consumption. The data were analyzed using the chi square Fisher's exact test, Independent t-Test and multiple logistic regression models by SPSS version 19. (The significance level > 0.05)

Results: A total of 83 patients (47% female, 53% male) with mean age of 68.5±15.05 years and  83 control subjects (37.3% female, 62.7% male) with mean age of 67.9±13.5 years (p>0.05) were assessed.

Thirty three patients (39.8%) in the patient group and 17 subjects (20.5%) in the control group were consuming opium (p = 0.007). But after adjustment of the effects of underlying and confounding variables, opium was excluded from final multivariate logistic regression model [OR=1.95, 95% CI: 0.8- 4.2, p= 0.096].There was no difference in the amount and the methods of opium consumption between the two groups (p>0.05). But the duration of addiction was longer among the patients than that among the controls (p=0.024)

Conclusion: Opium and its method of consumption and amount are not associated with ischemic stroke.

Conflict of interest: non declared